She Went Missing After Leaving A Mall 22 Years Ago, And Her Body Was Later Found Dumped In An Irrigation Canal
In 2002, 21-year-old Heather Hibbs from Vacaville, California, went missing after reportedly leaving a mall in Fairfield, and her body was later found beaten and dumped in an irrigation canal. Now, over two decades later, her family is still reeling from the loss and fighting to find her murderer.
“It was like she was here one day and thrown away the next. Just tossed like trash,” Heather’s mother, Wendy Burton, told the press.
It all began early in January 2002, when Heather left a drug treatment facility located in Petaluma before reportedly traveling to San Francisco and Vallejo. Then, on January 23, 2002, she stopped at the Solano Mall in Fairfield, California, and went to the security office.
There, Heather asked to borrow a phone in order to call someone for a ride. Afterward, she was last seen leaving the mall in a blue truck with an unidentified person.
Wendy then reported her daughter missing on January 29, 2002. But Heather was never found alive.
Instead, the remains of a battered body were discovered in an irrigation canal in Vacaville, Florida, located off of Brown Road near Highway 113. Investigators subsequently identified the body as belonging to Heather Hibbs and found that she had died due to blunt-force trauma.
While Heather was beaten to death over 22 years ago, though, her killer has never been found.
Wendy is still outraged by this and continues to fight for justice for her daughter to this day.
“It’s life-altering, is all I can say, and my family has never been the same. My girls still have PTSD and trauma, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said in a video interview posted on Facebook last February by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.
Solano County Sheriff’s Office – pictured above is Heather
“This isn’t just about me and my family. It’s about the community here; it’s about protecting the women in our community and getting this monster off the street.”
Detective Brian Miller also detailed the challenges facing authorities as they tried to investigate Heather’s murder.
“The fact that Heather did not want [it] to be known that she was in the Fairfield area, and the forensic difficulties we had because she was submerged in the water for so long, made this a very, very difficult case to investigate.”
Still, Wendy refuses to give up seeking justice– not just for her daughter, but to protect others from her daughter’s killer.
“We don’t know how many people this person has killed and how many people this person will continue to kill. So, I’m asking the community to care, to come together, anyone who knows anything– even if they don’t think it’s important– to come together and to provide that information to the Solano County Sheriff’s Department.”
Detective Charles Olmstead agrees that finding Heather’s murderer is crucial for both giving her loved ones closure and safeguarding the community.
“It’s very painstaking for her [Wendy] to have these unanswered questions of who killed her daughter, and is this person out there continuing to commit these crimes or has committed others in the past that we don’t know about?”
According to Wendy, Heather had a “bright spirit” and was known to be a “ray of sunshine.” She and investigators at Solano County Sheriff’s Department are also hoping that someone will finally “step up and do the right thing” by coming forward with information.
“If you could see her smile, you didn’t forget her,” Wendy said of her daughter in a 2009 interview.
“We can’t let this crime go unpunished. We need to find out what happened to Heather… My daughter deserved better than this.”
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office is still offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. If you have any information regarding Heather’s case, you are urged to contact the Solano County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at (707) 784-1963.
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