In 1983, two tourists were stunned to find Sharon Ray dead on a beach and immediately reported it to authorities. “Murder in the Heartland: Living Among Liars,” an Investigation Discovery series provides viewers with a thorough account of this case as well as interviews from experts and family members of Sharon’s case for more insight.
Who Was Sharon Ray and How Did She Die?
Sharon Ray was born in the early 1960s and raised with love by her guardians, parents or both sets of parents. At 19 years old when she was killed brutally by two tourists at Pescadero State Beach north of Pescadero Creek two tourists discovered Sharon’s partially-buried body stuck in the sand.
Police were immediately informed and, upon arriving at the scene of crime, found evidence of Sharon being sexually assaulted before her attacker smothered her to death. Once recording was complete, authorities began looking for clues or evidence that might help identify who perpetrated her brutal murder of 19-year-old girl Sharon.
Who Killed Sharon Ray?
Police interviewed Sharon Ray’s family members in order to gain an accurate picture of her life prior to her death and collect evidence. Through interviews with family and witnesses, authorities discovered that Sharon was last seen alive in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood on October 29 – one day prior to where her body would later be discovered.
As per witnesses, Sharon Ray was seen getting into a station wagon with John Joseph Scott (35 at the time), whom police believed may have killed her. John Joseph Scott was immediately arrested upon learning this fact but later released due to lack of evidence supporting these claims against him; and so the Sharon Ray murder investigation went cold for several years after that point.
Over thirty years after Sharon Ray’s murder trial had been revived, John Joseph Scott once more came under police scrutiny. They turned over all relevant information to San Mateo County Forensic Lab for further examination, hoping advanced technology might crack the case faster. Once biological evidence had been discovered and DNA profiles produced from individual witnesses revealed by this lab further linked John Joseph Scott with her murder; unfortunately this evidence had been hidden due to why it had been revisited and revisited so often since.
John Joseph Scott was arrested and detained by police on an arrest warrant for $5 Million in November 2015 from Topock in Mohave County in Arizona. John believed the charges would be dismissed and insisted he was innocent, per his testimony: He was accused of killing Sharon Ray three times; “They have noticed me three times already!” he announced proudly.
San Mateo County received John Joseph Scott one month after he was transferred from San Francisco County after his arrest and one month later in January he was freed due to lack of evidence against him and released from jail. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe provided additional details regarding John Joseph Scott’s release: ‘We obtained additional information that does not suggest he is the murderer.”
Joseph expressed both joy and sadness over being released, as he lamented Sharon Ray’s death without success from police capturing her killer. After being transported by plane back home in Arizona, John Scott was welcomed and given a quick tour.
Meanwhile, police investigations continued into Sharon Ray’s killing; “we are currently conducting intensive investigative work into who killed Sharon,” stated Steve Wagstaffe of Arizona law enforcement; they concluded it wasn’t John Scott after their inquiry had continued for some time.
