Opinion ID: 1365990
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Booher-Hatcher Murders and Booher Kidnapping.

Text: Mary Booher and Mark Hatcher were cousins, 15 years old. About 7 p.m. on August 20, 1980, they left Hatcher's home in rural Fresno County for an after-dinner bicycle ride. About a half-hour later Hatcher's mother and grandmother went out for a walk, to meet the youths as they returned from their ride. As the women walked, they heard a single gunshot from the direction of an orchard behind the house and shortly thereafter saw a pickup truck leaving the orchard on an oiled access road. Some minutes later they returned with a flashlight and found Hatcher's body on a road in the orchard, shot in the face. Later examination revealed that the shot had been fired at a range of six to twenty-four inches. The bicycles were found the following day in an irrigation canal about eight miles from Hatcher's home. Booher's body was discovered on August 25 in an orange grove a few miles away, also shot in the head. The body was leaning against the lower branches of a tree, in a position consistent with having fallen there or with having been dumped. It was missing a rubber thong from one foot, and there were barefoot impressions on the ground nearby. Otherwise the body was fully clothed, and there were no indications of sexual activity. The body was in a state of decomposition consistent with its having been dead for four to five days, and the presence of undigested food in the stomach indicated that death had occurred within two hours of a meal.