• 'Not a joke': Calif. woman's claims about dad killing 400 people create

    From yore democrats@21:1/5 to All on Wed May 7 12:06:06 2025
    XPost: alt.hobbies.serial-murder, alt.killers.serial, alt.california
    XPost: alt.society.liberalism

    A month ago, a woman from California’s North Coast shocked the internet, claiming, “I am the daughter of a serial killer.” Her post featured a black-and-white photograph of a square-jawed man sporting black-rimmed
    glasses, a sports coat and a tie. The image taps into a deeply ingrained American archetype, evoking old yearbooks, D.B. Cooper or, for many
    online, the infamous Zodiac Killer sketch.

    What followed was an explosive frenzy — speculation, disbelief and
    obsession spreading like wildfire. The online hive mind quickly latched
    on, amplifying her story across the world.

    Mendocino County resident Galina Trefil, a published horror writer
    practiced in crafting compelling narratives, took to Facebook on March
    13, 2025, and told the public that her 86-year-old father, Dr. Jon
    Trefil, had confessed to a decades-long killing spree across multiple
    states. The post has been shared over 16,000 times, prompted over 5,000 comments and become fodder for true crime discussions across the internet.

    Since her first post, Trefil has revealed what she considers to be a
    trove of evidence implicating her father, from taped confessions and
    supposed burial sites to sadistic personal journal entries. And she
    claims that despite this overwhelming evidence against her father, cops
    are ignoring the case. She says her father was responsible for one
    murder per month from 1965 to 1999 — a staggering kill count of over 400 victims. So if any law enforcement agencies are in fact ignoring the
    case against her father, they’re ignoring the chance to catch the
    world’s most prolific serial killer.

    https://www.facebook.com/galina.trefil/posts/10237636857442651?ref=embed_post

    Here’s the thing: The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office conducted an extensive investigation of Galina Trefil’s claims. Hours of interviews
    with her father and cross-referencing his DNA with the nation’s cold
    case database led detectives to one conclusion: There is no evidence Jon
    Trefil has killed anyone, let alone hundreds.

    'This is not a joke'
    In one of the opening lines in her debut post, Galina Trefil drops the
    line that has become the refrain of her social media campaign: “I am the daughter of a serial killer.” She frames her admission as a great unburdening, a way of coming clean after years of guilt. “For so many
    years now, I have lived a double life; carried an impossible secret.
    This is not a joke,” she wrote.

    It is difficult to distill Galina’s claims regarding her father’s crimes into a chronological narrative, given the copious and scattered nature
    of her supposed evidence. He began killing in the 1950s and continued
    until 1999, with no regard for age, race or gender, she says. He
    frequently preyed on hitchhikers, imprisoning victims for weeks before
    killing them, she claims, and says one of his go-to “murder weapons” was strychnine, a known poison. In one post, she shares a photo of a
    weathered antique bottle labeled “Poison” and “Strychnine” that she says
    her father kept in his medicine bag. However, similar bottles are
    commonly available on eBay.

    Continued.

    https://www.sfgate.com/northcoast/article/california-serial-killer-story-viral-no-proof-20267337.php

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