Q: Was anyone ever arrested for the murder of two PG&E employees on Folsom Auburn Road in Loomis in the 1970s?
RICK, FAIR OAKS
A: Two PG&E employees, 28-year-old Carla Burkart and 55-year-old William Harrington, were found shot to death in their company vehicle outside a home off Auburn-Folsom Road on March 2, 1977.
Placer County sheriff’s officials said at the time that they believed the two interrupted a burglary at the home as they were notifying residents that their power was going to be turned off for repairs, according to stories in The Sacramento Bee.
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Detectives arrested two suspects, one an ex-convict who had served time for murder and the other a convicted arsonist, but they were released due to lack of evidence.
Detectives theorized that Burkart went to the door of the house while Harrington waited in the PG&E vehicle with the engine running. Burkart apparently rang the doorbell and, when no one answered, left a notice on the door.
Investigators determined that Burkart interrupted a burglary because the residents were not home, but the television had been moved and other items disturbed inside the residence.
Burkart, who had worked for the utility company only a month, had gotten back in the vehicle and may have been telling Harrington what she had seen, when the murderer approached the passenger side and fired repeatedly at the two with a .38-caliber revolver. They died instantly, according to detectives.
Rewards totaling more than $20,000 were offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, but it remains unsolved.
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Cathy Locke: 916-321-5287, @lockecathy
