Rebecca Burch lived alone in an apartment on Tenth Avenue in downtown San Diego. On January 13, 1983 after not seeing Burch for a several weeks, her landlord checked on her and found Burch's body in her room. Burch had been strangled to death. There were no signs of forced entry, but there were signs of a struggle or ransacking inside the apartment. A .22 revolver handgun and a Timex watch are missing and unaccounted for.