The Chronicle ran an eight-part podcast and seven-part story series in the spring examining the Doodler mystery, attracting international attention and generating dozens of promising tips. “We’ve come a long way in this investigation, and I think we’re closer than ever to solving it - but we just need a bit more information,” Cunningham said in a recent phone interview. They are working on cracking the “Doodler” cold case. San Francisco Police Department investigators Dan Cunningham (left) and Dan Dedet in San Francisco, seen in 2021. Police hope publicizing Andrews’ name and the increased reward will jog memories and motivate those who have been reluctant to come forward. “I’d be a fool not to consider him as a Doodler victim.” “The location, the time period, the victimology - it all makes me think that it might be connected,” lead investigator Dan Cunningham told The Chronicle last year. But detectives believe that the killer probably struggled with Andrews, lost his knife over a nearby cliff, then grabbed the tree branch and rock to finish the job. The main thing that didn’t fit was the murder weapon. The unusual brutality of the attack - what investigators called “a rage killing” - and the fact that it occurred in an out-of-view spot near water were also hallmarks of other Doodler slayings. He was found at an outdoor gay hookup spot not far from where another Doodler victim was discovered a few weeks later, and his family and friends say they believe he was gay and closeted. It turned out there were enough similarities to link Andrews to the other Doodler victims. Photo courtesy of Nancy Luebke, sister of Warren Andrews Andrews, who lived in Millbrae, is believed to be a possible sixth victim of the Doodler serial killer. Warren Andrews was found beaten on April 27, 1975, at Land’s End in San Francisco and died nearly two months later in Washington state, where he had been flown to be near relatives while in a coma. He died of his injuries seven weeks after the attack and wasn’t considered a potential Doodler victim until 2021, when police investigators and Chronicle reporters looked deeply into his case. The five known victims were stabbed to death, but the newly identified victim - a 52-year-old lawyer named Warren Andrews - was beaten with a rock and a tree branch.Īndrews was left for dead on April 27, 1975, beneath overhanging brush at Lands End. The San Francisco Police Department is also expected to confirm it is adding a probable sixth victim to the total of gay men whose bodies were found along beaches and parklands on the western edge of the city in 19. The announcement will come 48 years to the day after the first victim was found lying at the water’s edge off Ocean Beach on Jan. Peter Breinig / The Chronicle Show More Show LessĮncouraged by new attention in the cold-case investigation of a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco’s gay community in the 1970s, police will announce Thursday that they are doubling the reward to $200,000 for information leading to the capture and conviction of the notorious “Doodler.” San Francisco Police Department inspector Earl Sanders is pictured in 1971 in San Francisco. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of5 His body was found at Ocean Beach in 1974. Cavanagh, 49, was a Canadian immigrant who worked at a mattress factory in San Francisco. Cavanagh was killed by the “Doodler.” The infamous serial killer terrorized San Francisco’s LGBTQ community in the 1970s. The grave of Gerald Cavanagh at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of5 They are near the approximate location where the “Doodler” is believed to have attacked Warren Andrews in 1975. San Francisco police detectives Dan Dedet (left) and Dan Cunningham at Lands End in San Francisco in 2021. San Francisco police are expected to double the reward for information leading to the arrest of a 1970s-era serial killer to $200,000 and formally identify a sixth victim of the so-called “Doodler,” portrayed here in a suspect sketch from 1976. Chronicle photo illustration of the “Doodler.” Chronicle photo illustration/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of5
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