Ukiah Daily Journal: October 13, 1968

Seven-year old child finds bodies; no clue to slayer

A seven-year old boy who awakened shortly after 7:30 this morning ran out of his trailer home six miles south of Ukiah off Highway 101 and found his mother lying on the ground, the victim of a brutal strangler.

The shocked youngster then ran into the adjoining house occupied by his grandmother only to find her lying dead on the floor, also strangled.

The victims were Nancy Warren, 64, and her granddaughter, Clyda Jean Dulaney, 24, wife of California Highway patrolman Don Dulaney and an expectant mother.

Making the gruesome discovery was Johnny Ussery whose younger brothers, Lane, 5 and Brett, 4, were still asleep in the trailer. The children were the issue of an earlier marriage. Johnny then went back into the trailer, and got his younger brothers dressed. The youngsters trudged south to the home of Don Torell where John blurted out to Torell and his wife “Mommy and grandma are dead.”

Mrs. Torell notified the sheriff’s office and a swarm of deputies, headed by Sherriff Reno Bartolomie, were dispatched to the scene.

The victims, both fully clothed, were slain in identical fashion, garroted with new leather boot laces. Two turns had been taken around the neck and the laces were knotted in back.

Robbery was the apparent motive although a plastic box and glass jar containing approximately $300 in cash was in a closet of the older woman’s home. A metal cash box which had contained a smaller amout of cash had been rifled and left on a table. At the scene was Clyde Warren, owner of Warren Trailer Sales on N. State Street, father of Mrs. Dulaney and son of Mrs. Warren.

Mrs. Warren operated Nancy’s Antique Sales just west of Highway 101 and south of Burke Hill on the two-lane portion of the highway. She was a long-time resident of this area. Mrs. Dulaney was a graduate of Ukiah High School.

John Ussery, Mrs. Dulaney’s first husband, is believed to be in Oregon. The sheriff’s office is attempting to contact him. Officer Dulaney, whose wife and children had been living in a trailer while they attempted to find a house, was contacted in Sacramento this morning. He is enrolled there for a special course.

Dulaney told the sheriff’s office that he dropped his wife and step-children at Nancy’s Antique Shop at 9:30 last night with the intention of continuing on to Sacramento. Realizing that he had forgotten his uniform, Dulaney returned to his Ukiah residence, picked up the uniform and continued on to Sacramento where he signed in at the Academy at 1:45am today.

Nancy Warren / Clyda Dulaney Death Site

The murders of Clyda Dulaney and Nancy Warren have long been thought to have been related to the presence of Manson Family members who were living nearby in Booneville. Six miles south of Ukiah just off the 101 is this pastoral view of Burke Hill: According to a 2008 article in The Anderson Valley Advertiser,the trailer in which Clyda was living near her grandmother's antique store sat about where the Saechao Strawberry Stand is today:

The Pattys attracted some unwanted attention while photographing the stand, so they shimmied on up the road to what is now the Nelson Family Vineyards' tasting room to qualify their presence. Mr. Patty, after all, loves him some Anderson Valley wine! Anderson Valley, in case you did not know, has the same fantastic grape growing conditions as Napa or Sonoma, but with a lot less pretense and price.

Since The Nelsons were nowhere to be seen, The Pattys made their way downtown to "the world's first organic brewery." Directly across the street from here was The Mendocino County Courthouse, with which Sadie Mae Glutz was well acquainted for charges related to prostitution and drug dealing in late 1968 and early 1969.
We may never know if these "senseless" murders were the work of our Sadie and friends.

There are a lot of rough types in Mendocino County; at the edge of Fort Bragg is a large sign that reads "Aggressive Panhandling Prohibited." This does not stop them, however, in the Mendocino Village and elsewhere today as in 1968. Patty noticed while doing her research in The Ukiah Daily Journal that teenage "hippies" were being cited all the time for squatting, petty theft, public intoxication and what have you. While she huddled between odoriferous muttering misfits with large backpacks, walking sticks and imaginary friends, Patty realized that Mendocino County is a place like few others with a really high number of transients per capita. More than most places she's been, anyway.

The Sheriff's Office was all over Sadie Mae Glutz in 1969, but came up with nothing. And, as we all know, this is a girl who liked to talk. What do you think?