The film tells the story of Linda O’Keefe, an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered. But not many know the devastating story behind the film.
“My name is Salmon, like the fish; by name, Susie. I was fourteen years old when they assassinated me on December 6, 1973,” is the first sentence that breaks the silence of the movie, “From my sky.”
The film tells the story of Linda O’Keefe, an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered. Her case was solved in 2018, 45 years after her death.
Now, it is one of the reference cases highlighting thousands of disappearances of girls, adolescents, and women that occur daily and remain unresolved. Under the hashtag #NiUnaMás, the goal is to raise awareness about the dangers faced by the female population, as Linda’s story illustrates: “One day, Linda woke up, unaware that it would be her last day.”
The Case
On Friday, July 6, 1973, Linda woke up to go to summer school. That day, she wore a dress made by her mother. It was white with light blue flowers and had a dark trim. She paired it with dark blue sneakers and white socks.
Usually, she would ride her bicycle to Lincoln Intermediate School in Corona del Mar, California, but that day her piano teacher was supposed to give her a ride. Linda would have attended four classes and then returned home, but that never happened.
The following day, the girl’s body was discovered on a farm. She had died of strangulation, according to the police.
The murderer was identified in 2018, on the 45th anniversary of Linda’s death. The Newport Beach Police Department in California released a new clue based on a DNA test, which was not available at the time of the crime.
Before revealing that crucial clue, the police department used their Twitter account to provide information about the last hours of Linda’s life. The tweets began at approximately 7 a.m. on Friday, July 7, 2018, when Linda woke up to go to school. The posts ended before midnight, the time when someone last heard her scream.
The campaign launched on Twitter featured messages narrated in the first person, as if Linda herself were tweeting live on the last day of her life.
“Hello, I am Linda O’Keefe. Today, 45 years ago, I disappeared from Newport Beach. I was murdered, and my body was found in Back Bay. They never found my killer. Today, I’m going to tell you my story,” said the first tweet.
In these tweets, it was narrated that after her classes, Linda used the school office phone to call her mother for a ride. However, her mother couldn’t pick her up due to a sewing project and asked Linda to walk home.
While walking along Marguerite Drive, Linda saw a turquoise van pull up beside her. The scene was witnessed by a woman named Jannine and her mother, who were in a vehicle on Marguerite Drive. According to their testimony, the van was parked at the curb with the passenger door open, and Linda was standing right next to it. She entered the van.
Jannine’s mother, sensing the suspicious situation, slowed down and stopped, but that was the last time Linda was seen alive.
At 6:42 p.m., the girl’s parents reported her disappearance to the Police Department. The alarm was raised, and specialized groups and helicopters immediately began a frantic search.
According to the narrative, only one woman heard one of the girl’s screams, but she was unaware of the disappearance.
Just before midnight, the police tweeted on Linda’s behalf: “A woman on the cliffs of Back Bay hears a female voice outside, yelling ‘Stop, you’re hurting me.’ She hears that, but she hears nothing else. She doesn’t know that I’m shutting down. Tomorrow, they will find me dead, a few hundred meters from their house.”
Linda was found after 10:00 a.m. by a man who was studying nature in the area.
Newspaper publications from that time reported that the girl was found clothed, and the police found no evidence of sexual assault.
Resolution
On the same day as the Twitter publications, it was announced that the case had been reopened, and a DNA test was obtained. Based on this test, a phenotype of the person believed to have killed Linda was created. The phenotype predicts the physical appearance of a person, taking into account their past and present characteristics, resulting in a digital avatar of the suspect. In this case, it depicted a fair-skinned man with bright blue eyes and blonde hair undertones.
James Alan Neal was finally identified as responsible for the crime and was arrested on February 19, 2019. He was charged with murder in special circumstances, kidnapping during the commission of a murder, and lewd acts against a child under 14 years of age.
Neal was almost 28 years old when he murdered Linda. At the time, he was living in Orange County under the name James Alan George Layton, which he later changed to James Alan Neal. Jail records also indicate that he used the aliases James Albert Lyton, Allen George Gilstrap, and James Albert.
He is currently being held without bond in the El Paso County Jail in Colorado on two counts of being a fugitive from justice, according to online records. Additionally, he is awaiting extradition to Orange County, California, to face charges for the murder of Linda O’Keefe.
The Movie
“The Lovely Bones” was released at the end of 2009. It was a novel adapted for the cinema, with Peter Jackson as the director and Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Stanley Tucci as the main cast.
The book, written by Alice Sebold, was inspired by a murder case and served as the narrative basis for the novel.
The story revolves around the crime of Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old teenager who is kidnapped and murdered by her neighbor, George Harvey.
After her murder, Susie is trapped in a sort of limbo because her life was abruptly taken by her killer. From her heaven, Susie Salmon observes how her family’s life, as well as that of her murderer, continues and resists letting them go.
In the plot, it is revealed who the murderer is, but he is not prosecuted for the murders he committed because he dies after falling off a cliff.
The film concludes with the line: “No one notices when we leave, only when we choose to truly leave. Perhaps you felt a whisper, or the wave of a whisper, or the breeze of a whisper flying away. My name is Salmon, like the fish. First name: Susie. I was fourteen years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment, and then I was gone.”