I was reading about the murder of Cherie Marie Payseur. Cherie was twenty-one years old. She had been hard of hearing from birth. She was also a drug addict and a prostitute. She was William Suff’s type.
She had been living with her grandmother for a few months. On April 26, 1991, Cherie left her home in Riverside, California to do some shopping. She was going to walk the few blocks to Vons to shop.
On a nice spring evening, Cherie wore a pink top, angora sweater, grey stone-washed jeans and white shoes.
She ended up dead. Cherie was dumped behind the Concourse Bowling Centre at 7100 Arlington St. She was nude. Not the agora sweater, not the white shoes. None of her clothing was found.
A couple of bowlers had gone out back to get some fresh air. The back of the bowling alley was isolated, and meant for maintenance staff, not customers. The three men saw a mannequin lying in a dirt planter. Curious, the men approached, but stopped short. It was a body.
Security and the manager, Howard Bingham were notified. Bingham happened to also be a reserve sergeant for Aero Squadron Unit Operations in San Bernadino.
Bingham headed out to the back of the bowling alley, followed by a patron. Bingham’s training taught him to leave the body alone. He wanted to preserve the evidence.
But the unnamed patron didn’t have that training. Seeing a dead, nude woman, he did the best he could for her, and covered her with his jacket. He wanted to preserve her dignity. He potentially contaminated the crime scene.
Police then Paramedics arrived, and it was they who removed the jacket. At the crime scene, Cherie’s body was subjected to evidence collection. Tape, vaginal swabs and cotton cloths were all used to get as much evidence as possible.
The jacket was checked in the lab for trace evidence.
Cherie had been beaten, strangled, raped, tortured and suffocated. So much happened to her, the coroner could not figure out exactly how she died. Except it wasn’t natural causes.
She was described as Count #8 against Suff. Sadly, the jury deadlocked on her murder only. A mistrial was declared. Suff was found guilty of every other murder.
But Cherie’s family was not too know that satisfaction.
At least, one person, on the night she was found, gave Cherie a bit of dignity.