In the spring of 1981, Stacy Benjamin was a 19-year-old woman navigating young adulthood. She was close friends with 23-year-old Patty Geddling, and on April 25, their lives were violently and senselessly cut short in a brutal sequence of events that began over a trivial drug debt. The crime would leave their families shattered and launch a decades-long wait for justice.
The tragedy began to unfold in Redwood City, California, when Stacy and Patty were lured to an apartment by acquaintances. The plot was orchestrated by several individuals, including Donald Jay Beardslee, an Air Force veteran who was, at the time, on parole for a 1969 murder in Missouri. The motive was revenge for a disputed $185 drug deal involving a friend of Beardslee's roommate. The plan was premeditated; Beardslee had sent his roommate out to buy duct tape to bind the women before they even arrived.
Inside the apartment, the situation quickly escalated.
Patty Geddling was accidentally shot and wounded by one of the conspirators, Frank Rutherford. Under the pretense of taking her to a hospital, Beardslee and others drove Patty to a remote location in San Mateo County. There, Beardslee shot the young mother twice with a sawed-off shotgun, killing her. Stacy Benjamin was held captive overnight as her captors, including Beardslee, used cocaine.
The next day, Beardslee and Rutherford drove Stacy more than 100 miles north to a secluded area in Lake County. There, in a final act of horrific violence, they attempted to strangle her with a wire garrote. When that failed, Beardslee slashed the 19-year-old’s throat with a knife. To obscure the motive, they pulled down her pants to make it appear as though she had been the victim of a sexual assault.
The investigation moved swiftly after police discovered Beardslee's phone number near Patty Geddling's body. When contacted, Beardslee quickly confessed to his role in both murders and, just as he had for his first murder in Missouri, led authorities directly to Stacy's body. His confession and subsequent testimony were pivotal in the trials of his co-conspirators. Frank Rutherford and another accomplice, Rickie Soria, received long prison sentences, while a fourth person was acquitted.
For his part in the slayings, Donald Jay Beardslee was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. In March 1984, a jury sentenced him to death. This began a long and arduous appeals process that would span more than two decades. Beardslee's lawyers argued that he suffered from mental illness and brain damage, and that he was an unwitting pawn in the scheme.
For Stacy Benjamin's family, the years that followed were an agonizing wait for the sentence to be carried out. Her stepbrother, Tom Amundson, became a passionate and public advocate for the execution. He had made a promise to his late mother that he would see justice served for his sister. For 24 years, he attended hearings and spoke out, keeping Stacy's memory alive. "Now it's time to say goodbye to Mr. Beardslee," Amundson said before the execution. "That's what I want, that's what my family wants."
On January 19, 2005, after all appeals and a plea for clemency were denied, Donald Jay Beardslee, 61, was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison. Tom Amundson was there to witness it, fulfilling the promise he had made years earlier. Beardslee offered no final statement. The execution marked the end of a long and painful chapter for the families of Stacy Benjamin and Patty Geddling, a somber conclusion to a case born from a petty dispute that ultimately cost two young women their lives.
