RED BLUFF — The killer in the Rashell Ward case has been named.
On Facebook, Jessica Criss, Ward’s niece, announced this morning that the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office had identified Johnny Lee Coy as the killer. Coy had been in prison since 1989 and died in 2019 while imprisoned, according to Criss’ post.
In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain confirmed the news.
The sheriff’s office described Coy as a former Red Bluff resident with a violent criminal history.
Ward was killed in 1983 at age 14. At the press conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Kain discussed the case and how it was brought to a close.
On the morning of March 3, Ward was walking on South Jackson Street in Red Bluff to Seventh Day Adventist School when abducted. Around 11:30 a.m., law enforcement responded to the area of Pine Creek Road at the Pine Creek Bridge for a reported deceased female, later determined to be Ward. She had been bound, sexually assaulted, and shot.
Detectives gathered several items of evidence at the scene. Kain said these detectives had the forethought to take items and samples of evidence that were not useful then but later played a crucial role in solving this case.
During the initial investigation in 1983, the sheriff’s office and staff worked around the clock, taking information and sorting through many potential suspects, suspect vehicles, and an overwhelming number of tips that came into law enforcement that overwhelmed employees. Numerous individuals were interviewed and vetted for potential involvement in this tragic case.
“At one point in the investigation, Henry Lee Lucas, also known as the ‘Confession Killer,’ stated he was responsible for the sexual assault and murder of Rashell Ward,” Kain said. “Detectives were able to eliminate him as a suspect due to inconsistencies in the confession.”
Other rumors also gripped the small Red Bluff and Tehama County community.
One of those rumors was that the sheriff at the time, Sheriff Ron Koenig, was involved in the homicide. Several variations of the rumor were spread. No evidence supported any of these rumors through the years of investigation.
The case remained open through the 1990s and the 2000s, with additional suspects interviewed, DNA samples taken, and witnesses reinterviewed as new detectives cycled through the investigative unit. Numerous leads were also pursued during this time.
Throughout the years, with progressive technological advancements, various evidence items were re-submitted for DNA analysis, to no avail. Kain said despite the setbacks and lack of investigative leads, the dedicated detectives at the sheriff’s office never lost hope of one day solving this case and being able to bring closure to the family.
In 2022, detectives discussed a new investigative approach involving the development of leads from family trees constructed using investigative genealogy. They learned a rootless strand of hair, which was recovered from the victim but did not belong to her, could be tested to obtain a possible lead through this new ancestral DNA analysis.
The sheriff’s office learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a team dedicated to assisting local agencies with developing leads using investigative genealogy. After meeting with the FBI and the California Department of Justice, who had been involved in the case since the beginning, the investigative team decided to use the new technique. TCSO then contracted with Astrea Forensics and submitted the evidentiary hair strand for testing and analysis.
Once a genotype file was completed, the information was sent to the FBI to begin the investigative genealogy process. Kain said the process is complex and can take significant time to complete. In this case, the turnaround was rapid. On Sept. 7, sheriff’s office detectives, Cal DOJ, and the FBI met to review the results of the investigative genealogy. The lead developed revealed a possible new suspect, identified as Coy, a former Red Bluff resident with a violent criminal history.
In 1989, Kain said Coy flagged down and kidnapped a mother and daughter from the Antelope Boulevard area and forced them to drive up Highway 36 East at gunpoint. He sexually assaulted the 21-year-old daughter and stole personal items and their car.
He was later found in Red Bluff armed with a handgun and arrested. Ultimately, Coy was convicted in Tehama County, where he was sentenced to two life terms in prison. Detectives learned he had died in June 2019.
With the new lead, detectives searched for relatives of Coy in the Tehama County area. They found several family members and explained the situation. These family members agreed to assist and voluntarily provided a DNA sample to be compared against the DNA recovered from evidence located in 1983 by the Cal DOJ lab.
“Cal DOJ Redding did a phenomenal job and had the results quickly,” Kain said. “The results came back highly likely that the DNA recovered from the evidence was a family member of the living relatives the sheriff’s office contacted.”
A couple of different types of DNA tests were completed, and they all came back to the same conclusion that the DNA recovered in 1983 was a close relative to the family. Cal DOJ also learned that when Coy was admitted into prison, his DNA sample was taken and submitted into the Combined DNA Index System. However, during that time in history, the upload did not contain the same number of DNA markers utilized today. Cal DOJ requested a re-upload using today’s technology.
On Oct. 3, the sheriff’s office received a CODIS confirmation of a match. The confirmation revealed that Coy’s DNA matched the DNA evidence located in 1983 on Ward. The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office was notified of the progress made in this case. District Attorney Matt Rogers and Assistant DA James Waugh were briefed on this case and agreed that if Coy were still alive today, the overwhelming DNA evidence would be enough to charge him for the crimes against Ward.
“The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to offer the family of Rashell Ward closure in this case after all these years,” Kain said. “We are also pleased to be able to clear the name of former Sheriff Koenig of any criminal involvement in this case.
The Tehama County Sheriff’s Office now considers this case solved and closed.
“This would not have been possible if not for all the hardworking, dedicated detectives throughout the years that spent countless hours trying to get justice for Rashell Ward,” Kain said.
