Missing Since: 1986-06-03 Location: Modesto, California
Standly was last seen in Modesto, California on June 3, 1986. She completed a two-week sentence for a drug charge and was released from the Stanislaus County Women’s Facility on Oakdale Road that day. She called her family and said she would get a ride home with her boyfriend. No one in her family had met the boyfriend or even knew his name. Standly was last seen getting into a blue or green truck. She has never been heard from again. She left behind two children, including an eight-month-old infant. Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr. and Loren Joseph Herzog, the so-called “Speed Freak Killers,” are possible suspects in Standly’s case. They were arrested in 2000 and ultimately convicted of murdering several females in the 1980s and 1990s; authorities believe they had as many as fifteen victims. Photographs of both men are posted with this case summary. Shermantine is on death row. Herzog’s sentence was reduced from 78 years to 14 years after the court ruled his confession had been coerced. He was paroled in 2010 and then took his own life in January 2012, after he found out his former partner had begun cooperating with authorities and had offered to reveal the location of victims’ bodies in exchange for a payment of $33,000. Shermantine led investigators to the skeletal remains of Chevelle Wheeler and Cyndi Vanderheiden, who’d been missing since 1985 and 1998 respectively. He also pointed out an abandoned well in Linden, California that contained some 300 human bones and personal items. Shermantine stated the well contained up to twenty victims. He blames Herzog for all the murders and says he only helped with disposing the bodies. Shermantine and Herzog are being investigated in other missing persons’ cases, including Phillip Martin, Gayle Marks and Ruth Leamon. The skeletal remains of victims Kimberly Billy, a 19-year-old who disappeared in 1984, and Joann Hobson, a 16-year-old who disappeared in 1985, were identified, but Standly’s body was not found in the well. Some agencies may list May 29, 1986 as the date of Standly’s disappearance. Her case remains unsolved. Investigating Agency Modesto Police Department 209-572-9532 209-572-9500 Source Information NamUs Modesto Police Department California Attorney General’s Office The Doe Network The Stockton Record Fox 40 Updated 3 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated February 24, 2012; three photos added, details of disappearance updated.