After Anthony Sully left Millbrae law enforcement, he reportedly developed a cocaine use issue and became financially involved in a Bay Area escort service run by Tina Livingston. In February 1983, three months before the Golden Gate Park barrels were found, Sully sexually assaulted and killed Gloria Fravel, one of Livingston’s sex workers, at his Burlingame warehouse. Flavel’s body was later discovered along Highway 35 in San Mateo County.
Sully then killed Michael Thomas, Phyllis Melendez and teenager Brenda Oakden. Thomas was also involved in sex work; Melendez, his romantic partner, had a criminal record linked to the trade; and Oakden lived with an escort employed by Livingston, according to legal documents related to the case. Sully’s final two victims were Barbara Searcy, who was also a sex worker, and Kathryn Barrett, a drug dealer Sully and an accomplice tried to rob for cocaine.
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All of Sully’s victims were either shot, strangled, stabbed, beaten, or mutilated. Some died from a combination of multiple injuries. According to legal documents from the case, after Oakden died, Sully told Livingston thatthe only difference between a civilian and a member of law enforcement killing someone was that cops were permitted to do it. Someone who served with Sully on the police force, though, described him as an “average kind of guy” and “a middle-of-the-road officer,” The San Francisco Examiner reported.
[Featured image by California Department of Corrections via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled]
