Families of "Speed Freak Killers" victims demand answers
A convicted serial killer on California's death row says he can show law enforcement where to find more victims. He may have been involved in as many as 70 murders in California, Nevada and Utah, but families of the missing say they're not getting help from the one place they expect it -- the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.
"What's in it for you not to bring these people home? For most of us, it's been decades. We're ready," Marie Gillit said.
Her father disappeared in 1993. She believes he was murdered by convicted serial killers Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine. They're known as the "Speed Freak Killers" because of their drug-fueled murders mainly in California.
Shermantine drew maps from his prison cell showing the locations of victims, something that Gillit believes would be gold for law enforcement.
He sent them to several people including California State Sen. Cathleen Galgiani. After the San Joaquin sheriff's department and FBI found five bodies, the department stopped searching in 2013 citing Shermantine's refusal to talk to them and the reliability of his information.
"He has not given me reason to not believe what he's saying. However, the sheriff's department has given me reason to distrust information coming forward," Galgiani said.
CBS News obtained emails showing that in 2010, someone from the San Joaquin sheriff's department ordered at least five cases involving victims of the "Speed Freak Killers" cancelled, requesting their removal from the national database of missing persons, even though their bodies had never been found.
"I have never heard of any active missing person case being deleted from a state or federal database," former FBI agent Jeff Rinek said.
Galgiani believes someone is trying to cover something up.
"Law enforcement is supposed to serve and protect, not remove and destroy. Someone at the sheriff's department gave the order to destroy these records for these missing persons," she said.
San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore spoke with CBS News Monday, but had few answers.
He said he was not personally aware of any missing person records that would have been deleted by the request of his department and said it's the first time he's heard of those allegations.
The Department of Justice emails say the sheriff's department insisted on the cancellations, but in a statement late Monday, Moore said the files were simply transferred for a period of time.
"This is just mind-boggling," Gillit said.
Her father was on the list of cancelled cases. She fears they will never find his body.
"Who can I not trust? I cannot trust the authorities on this one. I can't. I have to trust the man that's in prison -- which is the convicted serial killer," Gillit said.