El Toro Memorial Park June 6, 2020 Paul and I agreed to meet the following Saturday at Linda’s gravesite. I invited a few others who had shared the journey. Former Orange County Register reporter Larry Welborn covered Linda Cummings’ story from 1974 until his retirement in 2014 and still pursued the truth in the following years.
He wrote about it in the new book “Murder by Suicide: A reporter unravels a true case of rape, betrayal and lies,” which is available on Amazon. This is the final installment of a seven-part series. Part one: 50 years ago, Linda Cummings died and the pursuit of the truth started Part two: Search for evidence leads to more heartbreak Part three: After 31 years, an arrest is made Part four: Judge’s ruling a ‘gut-punch’ Part five: Serial killer and a book raise questions Part six: Brother asks for ‘small act of decency’ We hadn’t counted on weather other than the usual California sunshine on that Saturday in June, but a damp, drizzly morning didn’t keep anyone away, either.
One by one key people who stood up for Linda over the years arrived at the cemetery and found their way to the grassy hillside where we waited near her granite headstone, the gift of an anonymous donor, in Block 42b. Many had been in the crowd 16 years earlier when Linda’s body was exhumed in a search for DNA to identify her killer. This time we weren’t looking for a way to drag Louie Wiechecki to justice.
We were there to celebrate the moment – and to hono.
