The FBI is shifting its manhunt to the Gold Country around the found car, northwest of Yosemite–a windy three-hour drive from the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where authorities believed the women disappeared. The FBI now also believes that the killer knows the area of abandoned gold mines well enough to hide the car off a spur road where locals dump old refrigerators, cars and washing machines. And well enough to know that the smell of a burning car would likely not attract attention because the air often reeks from people burning their garbage. Unsettled locals are starting to whisper about possible murderers in their midst. Several also claim they saw the trio the day after they were last seen at the Cedar Lodge. Louise Guthmiller, who owns a gas station only a mile from where the car was found, remembers pumping gas into the group’s Pontiac: “It was a bright, sunny day. They had a shiny red car. They looked so happy.” By all accounts they were, until their trip to one of the most beautiful spots in the world went horribly awry.
