Pain Became Anger for Murdered Girl’s Mom

For nine years, Gloria Stratton and her family have lived with the tragic loss of Stratton’s daughter, Tracy, a 16-year-old who was abducted on Aug. 10, 1981, and murdered.

Having to cope with the loss of her child was difficult enough for Stratton, 47, and her family. But the fact that Tracy’s killer or killers have not been arrested has made Stratton a sullen, angry woman.

“You can’t understand the anger I have, because you don’t know the pain,” she said.

Her anger went unchecked for many years after Tracy’s murder until she received a call from a member of Parents of Murdered Children, a national organization with an Orange County chapter that supports parents in situations like Stratton’s.

“I didn’t think anyone would understand until I went to a meeting and met other parents whose kids were also murdered,” Stratton said in a recent interview.

Stratton now believes that publicity, newspaper stories, even a shot at the television program “Unsolved Mysteries,” may prompt someone with information about Tracy’s death to step forward.

“I’m sure there’s someone out there that knows something,” Stratton said. “Maybe down the line if someone has a vendetta on someone and they know something about Tracy’s murder, and they want to talk, well. . . I won’t let it drop. I don’t intend to.”

It was nine years ago when Tracy left her mother’s quiet home in a comfortable housing tract near Westminster Avenue and Euclid Street and didn’t return.

Initially, Garden Grove police suspected that Tracy was a runaway. They filed a missing-person’s report, but her mother, who knew that Tracy would have at least called, feared the worst.

With her son, Kevin, then 17, and Tracy’s older sister, Kim, then 21, Stratton scoured the neighborhood. They rang doorbells, showed pictures of her missing daughter and circulated posters.

Then, on Aug. 19, 1981, San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies, acting on an anonymous phone tip, found the teen-ager’s skeletal remains on a remote hillside off California 38 in the resort community of Running Springs, near Big Bear. She had been strangled.

The news jolted the family.

“Angry? I’m still very angry,” Stratton said. “Every time you read the paper or see the TV you wonder whether or not the criminal arrested knows anything about Tracy’s murder. It’s one of those things you never let drop,” she said.

At times, watching television is difficult for Stratton because she feels that Tracy’s murderer is out there, causing havoc and possibly murdering other young, innocent victims.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, who initially questioned one Garden Grove suspect, later said there was no evidence to connect him with the death. Few leads remain, but the investigation remains active, said sheriff’s spokesman, Jim Bryant.

Bryant said sheriff’s deputies hope that a new computerized method of checking fingerprints of defendants who have gone through the criminal-justice system may turn up something.

“We just arrested a guy from a 1977 murder who dropped out of sight from San Luis Obispo and turned up later in Iowa. We’re still hoping. We haven’t forgotten (Tracy’s) murder,” Bryant said.

Meanwhile, Stratton finds solace in helping others in similar situations and has become involved in victims’ rights causes.

Hazel Brown, of Fountain Valley, whose 26-year-old son was shot and killed in San Diego five years ago, is also a member of Parents of Murdered Children. She said Gloria Stratton’s anger-from-grief reaction is characteristic of other parents who have dealt with the murder of a child.

“When you finally start coming out of the shock and the fog, you’re mad as hell, and you feel that nobody loved my child as much as I did,” Brown said, “until you go and meet these other parents. You learn that they also loved their children as much as you did, and a bond develops.

“In Gloria’s situation, she’s become more verbal because of dealing with her emotions. She’s also become an active worker and helped pass Proposition 115,” California’s victims’ rights initiative, Brown said.

Although Stratton’s outlook has improved, both she and her friends believe she won’t feel “complete,” until Tracy’s killer is caught.

“I’ll never feel right until that happens,” Stratton said.

Parents of Murdered Children in Orange County can be reached by calling (714) 647-7508.