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FBI investigates series of murders claimed by child killer
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public’s help in identifying several female victims – including one teen from Lake County – who may have been killed by a man who died in prison several years ago.
The FBI is investigating the killings in connection to Curtis Dean Anderson.
Anderson was convicted and sentenced to more than 300 years in prison for crimes including the December 1999 kidnapping and murder of Xiana Fairchild, a 7-year-old Vallejo girl believed to have been his eighth victim, the FBI reported. He was captured after one of his kidnap victims was able to escape.
Anderson was interviewed by FBI agents in November of 2007, the month before he died. At that time he confessed to murdering eight victims in the United States, including Fairchild and 7-year-old Amber Swartz-Garcia of Pinole. Anderson also confessed to two murders in Mexico, but did not provide any information on those victims, the FBI said.
The FBI said Anderson’s first victim was a female runaway in her late teens or early 20s who he allegedly met and killed in late 1984, disposing of her body near a local swimming hole in Marysville.
The second victim was said to be a young female hitchhiker in her late teens, whom Anderson claimed he picked up on a road near the northeast side of Clearlake a few days after the death of the first victim, the FBI Said.
Anderson told investigators that in early 1985 he killed a third victim, also in her late teens, who had been residing in the Marysville area and who was possibly a runaway from Oregon, the FBI said.
The fourth victim was said to have been murdered in November 1986. The FBI said Anderson stated that he met the victim, who was about 21 years old and described as a light-skinned black female, in a bar frequented by blacks in the East Bay, off Interstate-80 on San Pablo Avenue.
He claimed this occurred about 10 days after he was paroled from San Quentin State Prison. Anderson allegedly killed her and disposed of the body in the Oakland hills.
In June 1988, Anderson allegedly killed Amber Swartz-Garcia, who Anderson said was standing on a street in Pinole, Calif., when he physically forced her into his car. He eventually murdered her in Arizona, according to the FBI.
The sixth victim, a Navajo woman about 23 or 24 years of age, was killed sometime in 1988 or 1989, the FBI said. Anderson claimed he picked her up coming out of a bar near Fifth or Sixth Street in Benicia, Calif.. He said he then killed her near Benson, Ariz.
In 1989, at around the same time as the sixth victim was killed, Anderson received a ticket while driving a two-door, brown, 1977 Chevy sedan, the FBI said.
The FBI said that in February or March of 1997, the seventh victim was killed. She was a black/Hispanic female in her early 20s with noticeable "junkie tracks" on her arms who went by the name “Rosie.”
Anderson allegedly met her at “The Bears” bar, which he described as being frequented by Hispanics. This bar was located under Highway 87 in San Jose, Calif., near a bowling alley, the FBI said.
After killing her, Anderson allegedly disposed of Rosie’s body near the Ben Lomand turnoff near Santa Cruz, Calif. During this incident, Anderson stated he had been driving a black Toyota truck from his “parts Company,” the FBI said.
If the public has any information regarding the identity of the alleged victims, please call the FBI San Francisco tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
All calls are confidential and tips can be left anonymously.