At the time of Barbara Jean Jepson’s murder in 1956, she was 18 years old and married to a man named Joe Jepson. Based on her case files, detective Rachel Evans concluded that Jepson knew her murderer. There was no forced entry, no valuables were taken from the home, and there was no evidence of a struggle. According to KSL, nothing looked out of place inside the house. Furthermore, authorities who responded to the scene noted that the radio was turned on to a high volume, most likely to drown out the noise while the perpetrator was attacking Jepson.
Jepson, who was four months pregnant, was raped before she was stabbed to death. During that time, Jepson’s mother was no longer in a relationship with Monte Merz. He married his fourth wife, a woman who had two children. As reported by Oxygen, one of the people investigators suspected to be Barbara’s murderer was her own husband, but there was no evidence against him. No one was charged with her murder, and it became the oldest cold case in San Fernando Valley.
