In the summer of 1972, 19-year-old Linda Clark and her friend Claudia Bidstrup, also 19, were driving from Chicago and stopped for gas in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On July 5 they were lured to the back of the station by attendant 28-year-old Danny Ranes and his 15-year-old accomplice Brent Koster, who disabled the women’s car, threatened them with knives, and sexually assaulted them. Both women were murdered that day.

The attackers wrapped the bodies in a blanket and placed them in the back of the victims’ car. Koster drove the car to a wooded area near Galesburg, set it on fire, and the remains were not found until a passing motorcyclist discovered them two weeks later. In September 1972 Koster spoke about the killings to several street workers, one of whom was a police informant; Koster was arrested on September 5 and confessed, implicating Ranes and linking him to other local murders. Koster was charged with second-degree murder in Linda Clark’s death and pleaded guilty; Ranes was arrested the same evening and later faced charges in multiple killings.

Are there readers who remember the Kalamazoo area in 1972 or have any information about Linda Clark’s last known movements?