Michael Cox

Michael Anthony Cox (born May 17, 1956) is an American serial killer who was convicted of murdering three teenage girls in Placerville, California, and hiding their bodies in the Eldorado National Forest in 1984. Dubbed The Forest Killer by the media, he was sentenced to death the following year and is currently awaiting execution.

Early life Cox was born in 1956 in Monterey County, California, the oldest child in a family of seven kids. His biological father split with his mother, Jean Stokes, during her pregnancy, and she later married a man named Forest Jayne. Jayne is suspected to have molested Cox during his adolescence, and in 1969 he drugged and molested a boy in their neighborhood, causing the family to move out of Monterey County to avoid potential prosecution.

On June 29, 1984, Cox visited a club in downtown Placerville, where he met a 17-year-old girl named Lynda Burrill. He killed her under similar circumstances and dumped her body near an oil rig. The discovery of the bodies caused a stir among city residents, with investigators concluding a single killer was responsible. By early September, the body of Debbie Galtson had yet to be found, but some of her clothes had been recovered along a highway. Her skeletal remains were eventually found in late October and identified through dental records. After Joanna Napoletano came forward with her information, Cox was arrested on November 10. During the penalty phase, Cox's lawyers attempted to persuade the jury to not impose a death sentence because of his troubled childhood. The jury nevertheless returned a verdict of death on August 7, and he entered San Quentin State Prison later that month.