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Murdered On The Pacific Crest Trail: Who Killed Andy Elam?
Detectives believe he may have interrupted a break-in, but the culprits have never been caught.
It was the summer of 1989, and Andrew ‘Andy’ Dean Elam from Cathedral City had just finished his first year of college at California State University.
The 19-year-old was a straight A student with aspirations of becoming a veterinarian, according to his father Billy Dean, and he was a keen cross country runner.
This was something his parents encouraged as eager runners themselves, which led to them heading to the famous Pacific Crest Trail on June 17th to jog some of the scenic routes through the forests together.
It seemed as though the trip was going as planned that Saturday morning and Andy ran alongside both his parents for a time. However, at around 8:30 AM, the teenager decided to turn back and return to where the family had parked their car on Highway 74.
The reasons for this aren’t clear, although local paper the Desert Sun reported that he said he would walk the family dog instead and another paper called the Palm Desert Post said he had told his father he was simply tired.
Whatever motivated Andy, the decision would be a fateful one. When his parents…
