It was a pitch-black night in the high desert, Atalob Valley, up the Great Blind Highway

north of L.A. It was late February, the year was 2000. Sheriff's Deputy Billy Cox stepped

out of his patrol car and braced himself against a cold wind howling down from the sand

Gabriel Mountains. Wind show was in the low 30s. Rain coming in. I hard to believe in

just a few weeks of sea of blood-red poppies would begin to bloom in the surrounding Mojave

Desert. Cox was responding to a call of shots fired at the park and ride off exit 5 on

highway 14 in Palmdale. It was 9.49 pm. The lot had about emptied out by the time he arrived.

Daily commuters home safe in their beds and then there he was the caller. Security guard

by the look of it waving at him about a hundred yards away. Cox drove over there and rolled

down his window. The guard seemed agitated. Told him somebody had been shot. Look bad.

Over there he pointed over in the west end of the lot. So then Cox grew slowly through

the darkened lot and there it was. Something very wrong around that bright blue Mustang,

all a skew between the long rows of parking spaces. Cox slowly eased out of his squad car

and approached. The driver's side door was open. The window rolled down about four inches.

A woman's left leg and barefoot were hanging out of the door. Weird angle. Dead still.

The engine was running. Keys in the ignition. Ed lights on. But she was dead. No doubt about

that. Barely more than a kid by the look of her.

Cox reached into the car, fished out what must have been her purse. Inside was a California

driver's license. She was young alright. 18 years old. Her name was Michelle O'Keefe.

Cox followed procedure called for paramedics though. She was long past saving. Also additional

deputies. But it didn't take long to realize this was going to go way above his pay grade.

LA County homicide detective Richard Longshore was sound asleep in two counties away when he got

...