Hello! This is part of my ongoing series on unsolved cases in western states — primarily California — from the 1960s and 70s. If you are interested, the previous post was on the murder of Sandra Rushing. If you have any questions, comments, or polite feedback regarding these posts, please let me know.
Background
Kurt Theodore Kaikinger was born on November 18, 1948 in San Francisco, CA to parents Theodore Joseph Kaikinger and Elaine Barbara Botzer, who had married in April of that year. Theodore's parents were originally from France. Kurt was the oldest of three boys, with his younger brothers Karl and Christian being born in 1950 and 1956, respectively. By 1950 the family was living in Oakland, Alameda County, CA before moving to San Leandro in the same county.
Kurt graduated from Pacific High School in San Leandro in 1966. His parents divorced in March 1968, when Kurt was nineteen years old. His mother, Elaine, was living in Sausalito, Marin County by 1969, and she eventually remarried, this time to a man with the surname Barnes.
Kurt entered the US military on Jan. 22, 1969, and was released from active duty on Aug. 27, 1970. His youngest brother Chris later followed in his military footsteps, joining the Navy in August 1976.
According to a clipping from the Aug. 25, 1969 edition of the San Rafael Daily Independent Journal — which misspells his last name as "Kalkinger" — Kurt had been "assigned as a medical corpsman with the Second Infantry Division in Korea." From what I can glean, the term "medical corpsman" is most often used in reference to medical personnel associated with the US Navy.
However, according to Kurt's US Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, which is available here, he had served in the Army. Furthermore, the 2nd Infantry Division is a formation of the US Army, and has primarily been tasked with "pre-emptive defense of South Korea in the event of an invasion from North Korea," according to Wikipedia). With this information, as well as the above, it seems that Kurt may have been a physician for the US Army Medical Corps, though I could find no indication of where he received his medical degree (a requirement for joining the MC), or of him ever studying or practicing medicine beyond the one newspaper clipping above.
Following his release from active duty, Kurt spent some time in 1971 living in Boyes Hot Springs, Sonoma County, CA before eventually relocating to San Rafael in Marin County. In August 1973 he was arrested for drunk driving, for which he was fined and sentenced to community service and two years probation. According to the lead homicide investigator who worked his case, Detective Paul Wallace of the Hayward Police Department, prior to his murder Kurt had been arrested for "alcohol and drug violations" — seemingly the DUI described above — "but was into 'nothing heavy. He wasn't a drug dealer or anything.'"
Kurt's last known address in 1976 was 4332 Mowry Ave, Fremont, Alameda County. About two weeks before his death, Kurt moved from there to an unknown address in Hayward. He was employed as a shoe salesman at a Southland shopping center, and was reportedly known to frequent bars in the downtown Hayward area.
Disappearance
According to one of the latest news reports that I could find, Kurt was last seen alive by a friend he had spent the night with, who dropped him off at the corner of C Street and Mission Boulevard in Hayward on Saturday, September 18, 1976.
Previous news articles, however, indicated that Kurt was instead last seen alive in Hayward on the night of Sunday, September 19th when he was seen by customers in an area bar after visiting a friend. It is possible that the two stories are accurate and actually describe the same night, but this is just speculation on my part.
Kurt was 27 years old and described as being about 5'8 and of slender build, with a tattoo of a crow smoking a cigar on his left shoulder. A photo of him provided by a newspaper shows him with dark hair and a mustache.
Discovery
At about 10:20am on Thursday, September 23, 1976, a man out walking his dog near the salt flats at the end of Eden Landing Rd in Hayward discovered the body of an adult man. The victim was described as being in his late 20s, 5'7, and about 150 lbs. He was initially estimated to have been dead for two to four days by the time of discovery.
By September 25th the body was identified through fingerprints as being that of Kurt Kaikinger. In interviews with the press, Detective Wallace of Hayward PD stated that he believed Kurt was killed on Sunday, September 19th or Monday, September 20th. The date of death listed both on Kurt's BIRLS file and in the California Death Index available on Ancestry is September 19, 1976.
Kurt was the victim of a homicide. He had been repeatedly struck on the head with a blunt instrument. In an interview from the following year, Det. Wallace stated that Kurt had been bludgeoned to death, having been hit on the head with a tire iron or crow bar.
"'It's one of the most brutal murders I've ever seen,' Wallace said. 'He was beaten probably 60 times. He had a fractured skull, broken fingers, and fractured ribs.'"
It is believed that Kurt was killed at an unknown location before being dumped in the open, weed-covered field where he was found, at the west end of Eden Landing Rd, near the Leslie Salt Company ponds.
Kurt was found wearing a t-shirt and a pair of checkered swim trunks. No shoes were mentioned. It is implied that this was not the clothing that he was wearing when last seen alive. One newspaper from the time pointed out that, "There is also no indication of why he was wearing [that outfit], since the weather was not warm." According to historical weather data, the temperature in Hayward on Sept. 19, 1976 never reached above 62°F (16.7°C), with a low of 54°F (12.2°C).
Police were unable to determine a motive for the murder. What little physical evidence may have been found at the scene has not been disclosed to the public by the police. The investigation was also hampered by a lack of witnesses, and quickly grew cold.
A Father's Search
In mid-October 1976, Kurt's father, Theodore, whom his sons called "Pops," offered a $5,000 reward — $28,048.36 today — for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his son's murderer. After little progress over the course of the following eleven months, Theodore again urged the public to provide information in his son's case, this time offering a $25,000 reward ($132,247.56 today).
At the time of that reward offer, mid-September 1977 — one year after Kurt's death — Theodore stated, "I don’t like to sound like a barbarian, but I’d like to see [the killer] torn apart. [...] the money will be well worth it if it brings these animals out of their holes."
In those same articles, Detective Wallace stated that the police had done everything possible during the investigation, but it had since stalled, as, "we’ve got no evidence, no motive, no witnesses. We’ve even got no crime scene." The weapon used to kill Kurt was also never found. Regarding Theodore Kaikinger's reward offer, Det. Wallace said, "But who knows? Maybe the $25,000 will bring somebody over. Some of these guys [i.e., criminals] sell their mother for $15."
Theodore said the following about his son in the two articles about the reward offer:
"All I want is the guy who killed him. I'll admit (my son) was no angel, but he didn't have to die that way."
"I realize my son had his handicaps. He got depressed easily, and then he'd drink, sometimes with the wrong people. But he had his good points as well as his bad. I think about how he would come over here and play the piano."
"Nobody deserves to die that way."
Due to the Hayward PD's lack of progress, Theodore began his own investigation into his son's death. By Sept. 1977, Theodore's investigation had "hovered about" a particular ex-con with a long criminal record. According to Detective Wallace, the ex-con had an alibi, however Theodore posited that, "if the alibis are weak, this money might just be enough to break them."
Theodore continued his investigation up to at least May 1979, when another article about the case was run, this time in the Oroville Mercury-Register, and again offering the $25,000 — $113,566.43 today — reward to anyone who provided information leading to the arrest and conviction of Kurt's murderer(s).
According to the May 1979 article, as part of his investigation Theodore had, "posted rewards, hired an attorney, pestered police, collected documents, and appealed through Bay Area newspapers in an effort to find the persons responsible for killing Kurt," as well as "interview[ed] persons who may know something about the case."
By the time of the article's publication, Theodore believed that "persons with knowledge of the murder" were living in the area of Oroville, Butte County, CA. Furthermore, "it is possible, he said, that one of the killers" was living in Oroville in May 1979.
It is unclear if the person Theodore was alluding to here is the same person he mentioned vaguely in his Sept. 1977 interviews, or if his investigation had instead led in the direction of a different suspect by May 1979. The wording used throughout the article also makes it seem like at that point in time Theodore believed multiple people were involved in the murder.
Theodore passed away in San Francisco on August 3, 1990 at the age of 68, without closure for his son. I unfortunately could not find any information regarding where Kurt or Theodore are buried.
Beginning in at least 1986, and up to at least 2004, Kurt's middle brother Karl regularly donated to the San Francisco Chronicle's yearly Season of Sharing Fund in Kurt's memory. By 1992 Karl would also make the donation in his father's memory as well. In one such donation, Karl called his deceased brother the "King of California."
Concluding Notes
I found this case while looking through newspapers. From what I could find, Kurt's murder was not mentioned by the press after 1979, and he is not listed among the Unsolved Cases posted on the Hayward PD's website. What little information there is to be found online about him or his murder has all been included here in this write-up.
Because of this lack of information, I emailed the Hayward PD on Aug. 4, 2025, asking about the status of the case to see if it would be worth submitting a public records request, or if it would be exempt from disclosure. After providing the details needed to identify the case, I received the following response:
"I was able to confirm with the Homicide Sergeant that the case is still open. For now, the case remains exempt from disclosure as to not hinder the successful completion of the investigation." [emphasis my own]
This is official confirmation that Kurt's case is still open and unsolved. Anyone with information that may aid the investigation into Kurt's murder is urged to submit a tip to the Hayward Police Department at (510) 293-7176 or by emailing [homicideinvestigation@hayward-ca.gov](mailto:homicideinvestigation@hayward-ca.gov). Any little detail is appreciated.
Questions
What do you think happened to Kurt? Why was he wearing a swimsuit? Was he killed by someone he knew? Why was he murdered? Where was he between when he was last seen and when his body was found? And perhaps most importantly, who killed him?
Sources
Oakland Tribune 9/24/76, 9/25/76
Fremont Argus 9/25/76, 10/15/76, 9/14/77
San Francisco Chronicle 9/17/77, 12/24/98
Oroville Mercury Register 5/3/79
Ancestry.com
Adam Perez of Hayward PD, personal communication
Pacific High School Alumni In Memoriam profile
[Note: I have linked my own blog article, which contains the same text as this post, at the top of this write-up simply so Kurt's photo will (hopefully!) appear in the thumbnail. This post is not an attempt at advertisement of the blog or anything of the sort. Furthermore, I did not use ChatGPT or any sort of AI to write this post; I just like semi-colons and em dashes lol]
Really great write up, thank you for sharing it! One small bit I can offer - “medical corpsman” is an odd phrase likely due to the reporter’s lack of familiarity with military jobs and how the different branches refer to them. You noted that his name was also misspelled in the article. He was almost certainly a medic, which would not require going to medical school. 19 months is an unusually short enlistment; it would be interesting to see his DD 214 to see the circumstances of how he left the Army. If you ever get your hands on that, I can help you interpret it (it’s the form that documents your separation from active duty).
He was likely a Hospital Corpsman with the Navy, which is not at all an odd phrase. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_corpsman
During Korea there were 18-24 month enlistment terms depending on your MOS, whether it was voluntary or conscripted service, and how fast they could get you back home. My grandfather signed two 18 month enlistments, but the second was cut short by the end of the war.
*Edit: wrong war, he served in Korea during Vietnam. During Vietnam, it was 2 years for draftees, 3 for volunteers, tours were 1 year. Thanks helpful commenters for setting me straight!
As a former medic in the Army, if he WAS in the Army, I can say that the job in the Army would be referred to as a Combat Medic (the job WAS a 91A, then a 91B when I was in, but it’s now a 68W). When I served during the Middle East conflicts my term was only 3 years.
He enlisted at the height of the Vietnam War 1969 and I believe the shortest enlistment was two years with most being a three year
Oof I completely missed the part where it said the year and my eyes went straight to Korea. Thank you for that! I still don’t think it’s unusual for him to have served 19 months during wartime, tours were pretty brutal and his dad said he suffered from depression.
If it has been the Korean War it wouldn’t be unusual but during Vietnam it was 2,3 and 4 year enlistments and if memory serves me right (yes I’m that old) only my friends who went infantry got 2 year enlistments, due to the fact they were certainly going to Vietnam for obvious reasons
thank you (and kaproud1!) for your insights! do you have any idea why Kurt would have been sent to Korea? i would’ve imagined it being the height of the Vietnam War he would’ve been sent to, yknow, Vietnam
Especially as a combat medic you would think he would have, I have questions myself as well because none of that makes sense I suspect something happened in Korea that we don’t know about
We would have had troops there because of the DMZ conflicts which were still ongoing.
We still have troops there,but in 1969 they would have sent him to Vietnam as a combat medic which was where he was needed most of all due to that being the most brutal year in the war starting with the Tet Offensive
If it’s true that he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, that is an Army unit, so it’s more likely that the reporter (who also misspelled his name) got it wrong. Like I said, if the OP can get a copy of his DD 214, we’d know more, like his MOS and confirmation of his branch of service.
They technically could do an FOIA request and get most of the information from a DD214 (not the DD214 itself because it’s a confidential discharge record only available to next of kin) but why go through the trouble? It isn’t going to help catch the killers, it would just prove there was a bad newspaper reporter in 1977.
Anyone can request military records, including a DD 214, 62 years after the veteran was discharged (source). So there’s still a little time before that would be available without authorization from his next of kin, that’s true.
I don’t know why you’re being combative? I’m just offering some information that might be helpful to anyone stumbling across this Reddit post. The reason I mentioned the DD 214 in the first place is because it lists the reason for separation. Maybe he finished his enlistment and got out, nothing interesting there. But if he was discharged for some other reason - fighting, alcohol or drug use, homosexual conduct, etc, it does shed some more light on the last years of this life.
I don’t think their comment reads as combative at all.
I was thinking the same about a possible discharge too, especially if alcohol was a problem.
thank you for this! here is the newspaper clipping in question. i have another FOIA request in the works right now, so depending on how well that goes i may try to submit one for Kurt here. and i'll likely have to take you up on that offer for this other FOIA request, so thank you! this request that i'm waiting on right now is for a soldier stationed at Fort Carson who was murdered in Colorado Springs in the late 60s, and apparently the FBI conducted their own investigation alongside CSPD. so there's likely to be military info that i'll be unable to interpret myself!
I second this, really good writeup and not sure if I remember this case or not.
Why you might wear swim trunks on a cool night: hot tub. Were there any places near where he was last seen that might have them, or did any friends or acquaintances have one? I know there are places now where you can pay for time in them, and hotels sometimes have them as well. Maybe he was invited to a party with/at a hot tub, then got into trouble there. It'd be interesting to know if the clothes he was found in were his or not.
Gay bath houses were a thing then. They would have included saunas, maybe hot tubs.
Yepp. The number of wounds and the way he was killed suggests hate crime.
I forgot about bath houses (I was thinking about people who go to ski resorts to not ski), but that would make sense. I wouldn't want to assume anything because there's tons of other explanations, but if he spent the night at a male friend's place might point in that direction as well.
I wonder if the Doodler was looked onto for this Wikipedia page fpr Doodler. His Span of crimes are listed as January 1974 – September 1975 and, as far as I know, those were all in San Francisco.
It seems the San Francisco police had a good idea of who we was but the survivors didn't want to testify in court because they would have been exposed as homosexuals. Most of his victims were stabbed to death but one was beaten. Maybe he continued after September 1975 but just moved to other jurisdictions. Hayward is in a different county but just across the bay.
I did wonder if he was gay and got involved with someone who took advantage of that
I grew up in Castro Valley, next town over, graduated high school in 1980. Downtown Hayward at that time had some gay bats so I wondered about a hate crime as well. OP thank you so this write up
I grew up in Dublin and also graduated high school in 1980. I'd say "small world" but things like this seem to happen often on the Unresolved Mysteries subreddit.
Another 1980 high school grad here, but Pennsylvania, then moved to San Francisco.
thank you so much for this insight! i’m not from the area (or california at all lol) so it’s always helpful to hear others’ thoughts and knowledge
Merely speculating, but this could explain his unusually short enlistment. If someone outed him in Korea, he would have been immediately discharged.
I wondered that as well; even for Vietnam that as a short enlistment. And without reading the original articles what struck me was having a friend just dropping him off at an intersection after a night at some bars. Sounds like some light cruising there.
I wondered about a gay tryst gone wrong too... he spent the night with 'a friend' and was heading to a bar. It would explain why he might've not had clothes on (and somebody just put him in clothes after) or even that he'd been swimming, or in a hot tub.
Exactly what I was thinking
My grandfather was a pilot in Korea at this time and when he passed, we requested his records and they also said Army (although we knew for fact he was a Lt Col in the Air Force and was even receiving a pension from his service).
There was a very large fire that burned many records during this timeframe and I feel like they entered whatever information they could find so those should not be relied on too heavily.
https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/fire-1973
Edit: I also just want to add that while his dad had the right idea by offering the money, he probably shouldn’t have added that it was only to rip the killer(s) apart. 😂😂😂
“I think about how he would come over here and play the piano.”
Man. So sad.
Very. His father's drive for justice is very sad.
i agree!! when i saw the donations his brother would make in his memory my heart broke a little, it made it more real. especially the one where he called him “Kurt ‘King of California’ Kaikinger” — it’s very humanizing, and reminded me that to Karl, Kurt was his older brother he could goof around and give each other nicknames with
What is the process to request and get military documents? My grandfather on my mom's side was in Korea, and my father's father was in the air force assigned to a bomber in the Pacific. I also learned he shared barracks with the Enola Gay. Ever since I learned that fact, I wish I could learn more about my grandfather's military history.
You just fill out a request here and then you forget about it until one day you get a big envelope in the mail! https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records
Thank you so much!
Here is the process and who can request them.
Thank you so much!
Striking someone that many times is serious overkill. That either sounds personal or like someone trying to send a message. I almost wonder if he owed money to someone, like gambling problem level of money owed to someone. This was a really interesting writeup, OP. I had never heard of this case. There's something so poignant about his dad and then brother trying to keep his memory and name alive via the rewards and donations. The swim trunks are really odd. I'd be interested to see them since the articles are not unified in calling it a swimsuit. The move to an unknown address 2 weeks prior also seems significant to me. It seems like he was relatively close to his family - wouldn't he have given them his new address? I'm also curious about the ex-con the father seemed to think was involved.
Or maybe he was.out of clean underwear so put on swim trunks instead. I've done that before.
He spends the night with a friend who drops him off on a corner and not at his own place?
If this was a regular friend and he was too tired, he would have driven himself home the next morning and not gotten dropped off by the friend
He didn't take his own car. Somebody He didn't know well drove him to their place and dropped him off on a corner.
hmm good point… this thought could help reconcile the discrepancy in stories regarding when he was last seen though! maybe he spent the night of the 18th with a friend, and then on the 19th the friend dropped him off on the corner so Kurt could head to the bar, where witnesses placed him that night?
It wouldn't be too unusual for someone to request to be dropped off on a corner if their home was right down the block and the passenger thought it would be easier for the driver to just continue along the street they were on. "Hey, just drop me off here. I live three houses down."
That is possible but usually that's for somebody you don't ever want to see again and they don't want you to know where they live lol
I've done it dozens of times - especially on a one-way street. "Just drop me off here."
Could the swim trunks be mistaken as boxer shorts which are worn as underwear?
The description of the way he was murdered and the number of wounds found on him suggests some hate crime, doesn't it? Half naked young man beaten to death... I think this points toward certain conclusions.
This case is setting off my gaydar for some reason.
PS: according to Ancestry, Theodore Joseph Kaikinger died in San Francisco on 3 August 1990. His mother died 3 March 2003, also in SF. Seems before marrying Theodore, she was married to someone surnamed Maxson.
thank you for this! i'll edit the post accordingly :)
You're welcome!
I grew up near Oroville and was only half startled to see it named here. It's a pretty rural, "mind your own business" kind of place, especially once you get out of town proper. It would be a pretty good place to disappear to, even today honestly.
it’s interesting that you say that, because i’ve written about another case where a woman disappeared from Oroville!
It kinda bugs me when investigators won’t release info about a case which hasn’t had any progress in years. What have they got to lose at this point?
Right, at least put it online, along with all the other unsolved murders. After his father advocated for solving this the way he did, for the PD to drop the ball is disgusting. Well, it's bad anyway. Great write-up, OP!
thank you, i appreciate it! i’m thinking of contacting Hayward PD again to ask them about putting Kurt’s case on their website. i’ve tried doing so befire with a case in a different jurisdiction, and i was making some headway but then i stopped receiving replies :/
Great news. Stay on their asses too. No reason this guy shouldn't be there right beside the rest. Good luck.
i emailed HPD about adding Kurt’s case to the website and received the following response:
“The purpose of the Unsolved Cases page is not to list all the unsolved cases in Hayward. It is to highlight a particular case for a time.
I am aware of the Kurt Kaikinger murder. Unfortunately, the case remains unsolved. The case number is 1976-91521. There are, regrettably, many unsolved murder cases in Hayward. I wish we had the resources and personnel to devote to every single unsolved murder, but regretfully, we don’t.
Thanks again for reaching out.”
Well that sucks 🙁. Wont release info about the case, but won’t spend time on it either.
exactly :/ i’ve had to go through this same process with another one of my cases as well — submitting a public records request in order to find out if the case is still unsolved, being told that it’s still open, asking them to add the case to their website, then they either don’t add it or stop replying to me
with that other case above it was even more frustrating because the sheriff’s office had to take an extension to respond to my request because they needed to “search for and appropriately examine a potentially voluminous amount of records that are demanded in the Requests and [to] potential[ly] coordinat[e] among several County departments in responding to the Requests,” only for them to eventually say that the case was open, making it abundantly clear that the case wasn’t even on their radar and instead was sitting there collecting dust. with Kurt’s case i’m glad that HPD is at least aware of it 🙄
Interesting. Well, I don't know what to say to that. If that's the case, pray tell when were they planning to run his case on their website? Like? "For a time?" When's his time, then?
I don't know if you'd be interested in this, but it's relatively easy to just create your own site on WordPress. I'm a techy idiot, but I did it with no help, & I'm old-old. So maybe that's an idea. Whenever anyone googles his name, your site will eventually get to the first page of Google, if not immediately, as it's so old a case... It could be a basic resource & leave comments open for tips, + all the numbers to call or whatever. I don't know, it's just an idea. You might be the one & only person on the planet at this point who actually gives a shit about this man.
i have the same question!! like, it’s such a strange set up… why only highlight one case at a time while making the others completely inaccessible? why not list all of the cold cases on the site, but then have one of them be the “case of the month” or something, and be put at the top of the page?
and thank you for your suggestions! i do have my own site rn through Blogger/Blogspot, but idk if it pops up when searching for specific cases? though it does manage to come up in google search results when specifically searching the blog title… i wonder if there’s a way to increase visibility, or if switching over to Wordpress could help… 🤔 that being said, feel free to check out my blog! i’m working on making it as comprehensive as possible for each of these cold cases. rn i have i think 124 cases posted so far, a few others that i originally posted but want to rewrite bc i found more information, and a ton both in my drafts and my notes
Please could I DM you a question about one of the things on your blog
yes of course, thanks for asking!
I'm unable to request to DM you, I think it's because my account hasn't been active for 30 days yet. My question is about one of the cases, I also discovered a person mentioned in connection to the cases uncle was acquitted of a similar crime about a decade earlier.
I’m local to Alameda County and had never heard of this. Thanks for bringing it up and I will definitely be diving into this case
of course, thank you! and if you’re able to find anything that isn’t included in the write-up, please let me know, i’d really appreciate it!
You had mentioned that you couldn’t find where Kurt or Theodore had been buried, but I was able to find Theodore’s burial place on Find a Grave:
Theodore Kaikinger
The level of effort Kurt’s father went to in seeking justice really touched me. So often on this sub, we see people whose families were unaware, uncaring, or non-existent, for so many different reasons. But this father loved his son and worked the rest of his life to obtain justice. RIP Kurt and RIP Theodore.
thank you for this! interesting that he was buried in Oregon, as from what i could find he lived most, if not all, of his life in California. that’s likely why i may have accidentally overlooked it
and about your second point, same! i was especially touched when i saw that Kurt’s younger brother, Karl, made one of the donations in memory of “Kurt ‘King of California’ Kaikinger.” it really brought home the fact that they were two brothers who would goof around and give each other nicknames
Could he have gotten into a fight with someone at a bar and things took a really bad turn? Especially given that his father even said “then he'd drink, sometimes with the wrong people”