A series of Facebook posts have been circulating this weekend written by a Mendocino County woman urging the FBI to take on the case she says she's compiled against her elderly father, a prominent local doctor, asserting that he's a confessed serial killer spanning decades.
Update: The Mendocino County Sheriff's Department issued a statement explaining that they did investigate the case as thoroughly as they could in 2023, including analyzing DNA samples, but they were unable to pursue it further without an official confession from Jon. Although Galina says Jon has been willing to speak to her about his crimes, she says he's always maintained he'll deny it when questioned by police.
Galina Trefil says she’s been sounding the alarm for years about her 86-year-old father, Jon Trefil, who also sometimes goes by “John”. Galina claims that she learned about a decade ago that Jon, who’s a retired psychiatric doctor in Mendocino County, was a prolific serial killer, but police won’t investigate the case. She says she first contacted the FBI in 2017 and then again in 2023.
The original agent that I interacted with was Christopher Taylor, who never did actually come to meet with me face-to-face or look at the evidence. I was told by someone in the Mendocino County DA's Office that Agent Sebastian Stanley, Santa Rosa FBI Office, is working on the case. Agent Stanley has never been willing to speak so much as a word to me, though there was a time when I was calling several times a week, trying to get through to him and leaving messages. I tried to turn the murder weapon over to both of them, or ANYONE in law enforcement. No one will take it. Most recently, I begged someone at the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department to take it. I even offered to bring it to them. His exact words were, "Woah, woah, woah. Slow down!" No. I won't slow down anymore. It's been almost a decade of me asking for help. Yes, I absolutely CAN prove that I was asking and trying to do the right thing. And to any law enforcement reading this, I assure you that I am not posting this to shame anyone. The bigger picture then is still the bigger picture now: the victims' families need closure that that won't happen until this is investigated properly. My father won't live forever. Please, take the murder weapon and analyze Jon's DNA! That's all I ask.
She says she’s offered to give them her DNA, show them where some of the bodies are buried, and wear a wire while talking to Jon, but she has yet to receive a response from authorities.
From 1965 onward, Galina says that Jon admitted to murdering roughly one person per month.
Female, male, old, young, and couples. The states involved are Illinois, California, Virginia, Oregon, and Idaho. The outside countries are Canada, France, the Netherlands, and along the Mexican boarder. Most killings occurred in California, with the specified counties being San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and one unidentified county that shares the Northern Mendocino border.
Galina says that her father first began killing people when her parents were living in San Francisco in the mid to late ‘60s. She says her mother was an artist and acclaimed singer as well as a “Girl in a Fishbowl” showgirl at Bimbo’s where she interacted with a lot of celebrities. This made Jon extremely jealous, which Galina says motivated him to begin his killing sprees. She says he chose the remote Mendocino County as his main killing ground where he could easily pick up unassuming tourists and hitchhikers at Willits Junction, a nearby train station.
While Galina’s claims have their fair share of skeptics, the story has been gaining traction over the past couple of days as residents near the Mendocino County area have been asking Galina for details about various victims who’ve gone missing over the years. Others believe that Jon’s handwriting very closely resembles the handwriting of the Zodiac Killer.
There's also a Reddit thread about the case:
Dr. Jon Charles Trefil IS THE ZODIAC killer?!?!
byu/New_Layer_2469 inTrueCrimeMystery
Galina says Jon poisoned her grandfather and two of her great grandparents, which she shared in a post with pictures of her relatives’ gravestones.
Galina says her parents were also frequently investigated by CPS who suspected Jon of being a child rapist. She says she was held prisoner at his property in Mendocino.
She also says Jon was friends with two former patients who are also serial killers, Michael Fries and Julia Strnad Houser. Galina says Strnad routinely stalked and abused her. Strnad was a caregiver for elderly patients whom Galina says frequently talked about abusing and killing.
As a teenager, I began to be aware of just how bizarre my situation was. I was a minor facing down a child killer. Why was no one helping me? Why was the Fort Bragg PD not helping?
My sense of despair intensified when Julia Strnad accused my father of rape to the California Medical Board. That investigation lasted years, and I thought, “Aha! Someone will save me now!” My father had me copy Strnad’s patient files for the medical board, wherein I saw Strnad put in writing her intention to kill me. Surely the Medical Board would save a 16-year-old girl. But…they too did nothing for me.
Galina says her sole motivation for sharing this information is to motivate authorities to investigate the case so the victims’ families can have a sense of closure. She emphasizes that she doesn’t want the horrific details of her own childhood to overshadow what happened to the victims' loved ones.
If Galina is telling the truth, hopefully the authorities take on the case. Or perhaps it’s all a hoax, albeit a very well-written one.
Image: Willits Station, the site where Galina says Jon routinely found his victims; Drew Jacksich/Wikimedia
Related: Retiring Chronicle Reporter Kevin Fagan Would Like Everyone to Stop Sending Him Zodiac Killer Tips
