The Murder of Barbara Nantais
How my mother’s cousin’s cold case became my childhood cautionary tale
On the morning of August 13, 1978, San Diego’s Torrey Pines State Beach visitors were met with the disturbing crime scene of fifteen-year-old Barbara Nantais’ brutally slain with no signs of her attacker. This infamous cold case involving my mother’s young cousin became a cautionary tale used to steer me away from danger at an age when innocence allowed for immense vulnerability.
When my friends and I began driving and spending more evenings out unsupervised, my mom was always adamant that I never go anywhere isolated at night. In particular, she always vehemently insisted that my sister and I never go to the beach at night, followed by, “my cousin was murdered when she was 15 because she went to the beach at night.” Here and there she mentioned her name and bits and pieces of her story. It wasn’t until many years later when I was sitting watching a 48 Hours episode, “Blood in the Sand”, that I connected the dots. The details were horrifying. Barbara (15) and her boyfriend Jim Alt, who was 17 at the time of the murder, decided to set up their sleeping bags on the sand at Torrey Pines Beach in San Diego, California. What was supposed to be a romantic night under the stars ended in the brutal beating and strangulation of Barbara and the near death of…
