How to Catch A Criminal: No News is Bad News

Every officer with a decent amount of time on the job knows the unexpected turns an investigation can take. Seeing a major case through to completion often involves giving up on a theory and taking your investigation in a different direction as new information becomes available. In How to Catch A Criminal, we look at the many ways not-so-perfect crimes are solved. This month, a family faces decades of uncertainty, only to finally have their hopes dashed.

When it comes to missing persons cases, the friends and family members of the unaccounted for person face two stages of suffering. First, the unknown. Where has their loved one gone? Did they leave of their own accord or were they kidnapped? Will they ever come back? Are they in danger? Then of course, is everyone's worst fear; is the missing person dead? Generally, once the what and why are known, a victim's loved ones will know if their worst fears will be realized or not. The second phase of the family's suffering comes from knowing the victim’s fate. Even when filled with worry, people can hold onto hope that the missing person will be found alive. In many cases however, that hope is dashed when the missing person is found deceased. That period in between a person going missing and their fate being determined has to be excruciating, and every minute without answers must feel like an hour. For one unfortunate family, those hours turned to years, and the years turned to decades.

In December of 1967, Anita Piteau set out on a road trip to the West coast with a few guys she met on a recent night out. Anita, a 25-year-old native of Augusta Maine, had always dreamed of visiting California. Her humble means in Augusta unfortunately did not afford her the opportunity travel there on her own.  While Anita intended to return home to Maine at some point, she wanted to stick around California long enough to check out Hollywood and see what the film and television industry had to offer. The allure of Hollywood was exactly the kind of excitement Anita craved. Since her youth she had a tendency to let her free spirit guide her, sometimes, to her detriment. As a teenage girl, Anita racked up a slew of unexcused school absences because she would rather wander through the city than be stuck at school all day. Her chronic truancy became delinquency and in 1955 a judge fined Anita's mother $20 and ordered Anita be sent to the Maine Industrial School for Girls until her 21st birthday where she could be reformed into a well behave member of society.

After leaving reform school, Anita wanted to make up for lost time. She frequented dance halls and parties where she could socialize and have fun, shaking off the structured life she lived for the past 8 years. Anita was most interested in having a good time and didn't bother much with working boring old jobs. She wanted to experience everything life had to offer, and when her new friends offered to take her on their trip, she jumped at the chance. They headed West and settled in Whittier, not far from Hollywood.  Anita kept in touch with her family by sending regular letters keeping them informed of her West coast adventures. Letters from January and February 1968 detailed her new life. Anita got a job and rented a room from a friendly woman she had met. The guys she rode with had gone back to Maine, but Anita elected to hang around until May. She planned to find another way home, and wanted to visit family in Connecticut on the way. For now, however, she took in the sights and casually dated here and there. True to her free spirited ways, she was never in a long term commitment with anyone. As far as the rest of the Piteau family could tell, Anita was living her dream.

The Piteau family became concerned when the month of May arrived, and they hadn't heard from Anita since February. Anita hadn't responded to the letters, which were sent to her landlord's address. The family was hopeful Anita would turn up in Connecticut or Maine as planned, but she never did. By June, the Piteau family needed answers. They called the Whittier Police Department, but the welfare check was no help. The landlord had moved away, and the home was unoccupied. People like Anita like to wander, and she was probably just making her way back East. Police were confident Anita would surface soon. Sadly, soon never came. The Piteau family spent years waiting, but time went on and Anita never came home, and she never sent another letter. Unbeknownst to them, Anita never started her journey home. In fact, she didn't get far from Whittier.

Sometime between the late evening of March 13th, and early morning of the 14th, a woman accepted a ride home from a man in Huntington Beach, less than 20 miles from Whittier. At 2 am on the 14th, a scream was heard in a field near a new subdivision. Later that morning, a group of children approached what they thought was a scarecrow which had fallen over in the field. When they got closer, they realized they were looking at a dead woman's body. Her clothing was torn, her face bruised, and her throat slashed. She had aspirated on her own blood as a result. The crime appeared to be sexual in nature due to the state of her clothes. A partially smoked cigarette was collected from the scene, and tire tracks nearby were photographed. The tracks indicated the woman was pushed out of the vehicle before it made a U-turn and fled the area. She did not have a purse or identification on her, but of course, the victim was Anita Piteau. Unfortunately, despite the investigator's best efforts, that information would not become known for more than 50 years.

Anita was listed as Jane Doe while efforts were made to identify her. They released sketches of Anita to the media, and interviewed numerous possible suspects, but no concrete information was uncovered. They correctly surmised that she must not have been from the area, otherwise someone would have come forward looking for her. Thanks to careful processing of the crime scene and proper preservation of the evidence, modern forensic testing was possible. In 2001 unknown male DNA was taken from the cigarette and was later matched to DNA found on the victim's body thanks to a sexual assault kit. This development still didn't yield any answers, because the male DNA did not match any samples in the national CODIS database. In 2011 Anita's fingerprints and DNA were checked in national databases, but she remained unidentified. In the next few years, Anita's mother and one of her six siblings passed away. The family that remembered her was beginning to dwindle, and they were sure they would never know what became of her.

In 2019 however, investigators utilized genetic genealogy, enlisting the help of expert Colleen Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick was able to construct family trees for both Anita and the unknown male. The male DNA was narrowed down to four brothers who lived in the area at the time of the murder. The only living brother agreed to provide a sample, which confirmed one of his brothers was the killer. One brother, Johhny Chrisco, died of lung cancer in 2015, and samples from his biopsy were still available. Testing of those samples proved without a doubt, Johnny Chrisco was the man in the car with Anita when she was killed. His lengthy arrest record and discharge from the Military due to psychological problems, further pointed to his culpability in the murder. 

Next, police contacted a distant cousin of Anita, who popped up as a possible relative. He asked the older Piteau family members about a missing cousin he had never met. This led Police to Anita's sister Ann, and brother, Raymond. They both submitted DNA samples which finally confirmed, after 52 years the Huntington Beach Jane Doe, was Anita Piteau. Though the surviving family likely knew after so many years Anita would not be found alive, they were surely still happy to finally know what became of her. Despite their worst fears being confirmed, they finally got the news they sought for the better part of a century. Thanks to proper handling of the case at the time, and advancements in forensics many years later, Anita Piteau is now laid to rest in the Piteau family plot, right where she belongs.