Joann Hobson was 16 when she disappeared in 1985. Her remains were identified decades later among multiple victims recovered from an abandoned well in Linden, California, linked to the killers known as the Speed Freak Killers, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. Investigators recovered hundreds of bone fragments from the well and used nuclear DNA testing to confirm Hobson’s identity and try to determine cause of death. Hobson’s mother, Joan Shelley, had long suspected Shermantine and Herzog after her daughter was initially classified as a runaway. Shermantine has been convicted of multiple murders and is on death row; Herzog, who had been convicted, later had his sentence reduced and died by suicide in 2012. Shermantine told investigators he knew details about Hobson’s disappearance and murder but was never formally convicted for her death.

The recovery and identification of Hobson’s remains came nearly 27 years after she vanished, and the burial sites were located in part from hand-drawn maps provided by Shermantine. Her family planned to cremate her and keep her ashes at home. Does anyone have information about Joann’s life before 1985 or about her last known whereabouts?