Gerald & Charlene Gallego

The Gallegos, now living as the Feils, were on a small vacation in Oregon when they spied their next victim.� It was June 7, 1980, and Linda Aguilar wasnt Geralds typeshe was 21, had dark hair and eyes, and was pregnant.� But when he saw her walking beside the highway, he decided he had to have her.� He slowed the van and asked Linda if she needed a ride.� Linda, on her way home from a local store, accepted.� Charlene knew the routine by nowpresently Gerry ordered her to drive and began his sexual assault.� In a while they stopped, and Charlene wandered about in the woods, killing time until Gerry was ready to go.� When he found a spot he felt was suitably isolated, he took Linda away from the van, striking her with a rock, then strangling her.

Authorities first believed Linda Aguilar, who was known as something of a free spirit, had merely wandered off.� But as the days passed suspicion mounted, and when her body was found later that month, police suspected her boyfriend of the killing.� Even though one witness reported seeing a pregnant woman getting into a van the day of Lindas disappearance, the circumstantial evidence against the boyfriend weighed more heavily in the minds of the police.� He had beaten Linda before, and it seemed he would be charged with her murder soon.

Gerald was getting bolder and more impatient.� It was only a month and a half before he was ready to strike again.� He and Charlene spent the day of July 16, 1980 drinking themselves silly, then spent the evening doing even more drinking a the Sail Inn, a bar in West Sacramento.� Gerald was belligerent and boastful that night, and seemed to pay no special attention to Virginia Mochel, the bartender.� When closing time came, though, he told Charlene he wasnt ready to leave.� They waited in the parking lot, and when Virginia came out after locking up the bar Gerald forced her into the van with his .357.� But this time, instead of heading out into the countryside, he drove the van home.� Charlene waited inside watching television, and when he was finished with raping Virginia, Gerald told Charlene to get in the van.� He made her drive, and while she did, he strangled Virginia.� They dumped the body outside Clarksburg. The next day Gerald celebrated his thirty-fourth birthday with unseemly glee.

Virginia Mochel had two small children and was not the itinerant sort, so police took her disappearance seriously.� Patrons of the Sail Inn reported that two strangers, a man named Stephen and his girlfriend Charlene, had come into the bar that night.� Police tracked Gerald down at his new bartending job, and he admitted hed been at the Sail Inn that night.� He knew nothing of what had become of Virginia Mochel, however.� Charlene gave similar answers, and told police offhandedly that she and her boyfriend had been fishing that day.� When Virginias body was found, her hands were bound with fishing line, which raised detectives suspicions, but didnt offer anything concrete against the couple.� The investigation ground to a halt.

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