After 50 years, investigators ID suspect who killed Good Samaritan in the Mojave Desert
Daniel Ashton Walker Jr. was fatally shot by an unknown gunman as he and a passenger slept in a parked car along Interstate 40 in the Mojave Desert.
Nearly 50 years later, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials announced they identified Thomas Eugene Creech as the suspect behind in the shooting that happened on Oct. 1, 1974 east of Barstow.
On Wednesday, sheriff’s officials announced the cold case update, which included how they recently came to identify and locate the 73-year-old Creech as they suspect.
Good Samaritan
The day before the shooting, the 22-year-old Walker packed his van and left family in Santa Ana on his way back to Denver, the San Bernardino Sun County reported.
Traveling north through the Cajon Pass, Walker stopped and picked up an 18-year-old hitchhiker near Interstate 15 and Highway 138, and promised to drive the young man home to Texas.
Those who knew Walker said the Illinois native was a Good Samaritan, often going out of his way to do good deeds for others.
After traveling through Victorville and Barstow, the duo decided to park alongside I-40, about 62 miles west of Needles to get some rest, sheriff’s officials reported.
The shooting
At about 6 a.m. the following day, Walker was awakened by an unknown suspect, later identified as Creech, who shot him multiple times, sheriff's officials said.
Asleep in the back of the van, the passenger was awakened by the sound of two shots, that’s when he heard Walker beg the gunman not to be shot again, the Sun reported.
The passenger hid under a blanket when he heard two more shots ring out. He would later describe to police two white men who left the scene in a gold van.
After the passenger escaped, he flagged down a passing motorist for help. Walker was later transported to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries, sheriff’s officials reported.
The delivery man
After the shooting, investigators spoke to a delivery man who said earlier that morning the suspects waved him down after their gold van was stuck in the sand.
One of the suspects told the delivery man they were heading to Indiana and that they carried a shotgun to shoot down posts and sagebrush to use for tire traction should they get stuck.
The delivery man helped tow the van and refused payment for his services.
1974 investigation
Investigators at that time believed robbery was the motive in the shooting, although the suspects only took $80 from Walker and passed on the $600 in traveler's checks he was carrying.
The suspects did not take Walker’s motorcycle, stereo system, or luggage that was stored in the back of his van.
Law enforcement officials in California, Nevada and Arizona were notified and stopped each van that matched the description of the suspect’s vehicle, the Sun reported.
Creech identified
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s homicide detail investigated and exhausted all leads at that time.
Over several years, the sheriff’s department’s homicide detail cold case team reviewed Walker’s case but was unable to develop any workable leads to solve his murder, sheriff’s officials stated.
On Nov. 15, the cold case team resumed the investigation and obtained additional information, which led to Creech being identified as the suspect in Walker’s murder.
Creech was found incarcerated in an Idaho prison for several additional murders, where he was found guilty, sheriff’s officials said.
While working with the Ada County District Attorney’s Office in Idaho, cold case detectives were able to corroborate intimate details from statements Creech made regarding Walker’s murder, sheriff's officials said.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and is in consultation with the Ada County District Attorney’s Office.
For years, Creech claimed to have killed dozens of people but, as of a week ago, said the real number was fewer than 14, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Creech has been convicted of five murders. Idaho prosecutors last week detailed to the state’s parole board during a clemency hearing why they believed he committed no fewer than 11 murders and probably dozens more.
Creech is currently the longest-serving inmate on death row in Idaho, sheriff’s officials said.
Creech’s public defender
The Idaho Statesman reported that Creech’s attorneys with the nonprofit Federal Defender Services of Idaho said Wednesday in a statement that the announcement that their client is a suspect in the Walker murder “only underscores how false and irresponsible it was for the Ada County prosecutors to claim at last Friday’s clemency hearing that the case was ‘closed’ and Mr. Creech was guilty.”
In the statement, Deborah Czuba, supervising attorney for the legal nonprofit’s death penalty unit, said the announcement lacks “any real evidence” against Creech and instead “relies entirely on unspecified ‘intimate details’ provided by Mr. Creech a long time ago” yet revealed only now for unexplained reasons decades later.
“These details somehow now make Mr. Creech a new suspect in a crime that has never been tied to him,” Czuba said, “despite several efforts to link it to him as far back as 1975, when teams of federal and local law enforcement officials were determined to prove the fantasy that he committed 50 murders.”
Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to contact Detective Justin Carty with the specialized investigations division – homicide detail, cold case team, at 909- 890-4904. Callers can remain anonymous by contacting We-Tip at 800-78CRIME or wetip.com.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: After 50 years, investigators ID suspect who killed Good Samaritan
