Second victim in Santa Cruz Mountains double homicide identified by family, friends

The second victim of an apparent double homicide in the Santa Cruz Mountains has been identified by friends and family as 54-year-old Colter White of Boulder Creek.

Relatives identified 45-year-old Sean Pfeffer, also of Boulder Creek, as the first victim found in the truck March 24. Pfeffer’s identity was first confirmed by local TV station KSBW last week.

Nicki Dorris, Pfeffer’s older sister, told Lookout on Monday that White’s body was one of two found inside a pickup truck in the area of Highway 35 near Oak Ridge Road, south of Castle Rock State Park, just before 7 p.m. last Monday. She has been in contact with White’s sister, who Dorris said has been great support as she navigates the loss of her own brother.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Andrew Barclay initially told Lookout that the deaths were considered “suspicious,” but that there was very little information about the circumstances surrounding their deaths, because there were no known witnesses. Barclay then said on Friday that autopsy results prompted the agency to approach the incident as a double homicide, but did not disclose what the results were, nor did the Santa Clara County coroner’s office. 

Dorris told Lookout on Monday that she knew of White, but did not know him personally. She said that White and her brother lived in the same area of Boulder Creek and that they were “best friends.”

Dorris said she grew concerned after reading a cryptic Facebook post that Pfeffer made on March 23, a day before law enforcement discovered the bodies, naming a man and writing, “I hope you shoot me.” When Pfeffer did not answer his sister’s calls or read her messages, Dorris said she began calling hospitals and nearby police departments. Investigators told her later that day that they had found Pfeffer’s body.

“He’s my baby brother and he’s the sweetest, most kind person and very protective of the people he loves,” she said. Dorris and Pfeffer grew up in Gilroy, and Dorris described her brother as “like a bulldog” who wore his heart on his sleeve.

Dorris, who lives in Texas, said she had never heard the name of the man in Pfeffer’s final Facebook post, and never would have expected something like this to happen to her brother.

“I always thought that if he was going to go before me, it was going to be because he’s riding too fast on a damn motorcycle,” she said. “I struggle with the word ‘murder’ being a part of my vocabulary now.”

Dorris said, as difficult as the past week has been, she and their mother, who lives in Louisiana, have felt somewhat more peaceful after seeing the amount of love and nice stories people have shared about Pfeffer. She is planning a celebration of life in Texas on July 4, and said that the loss of her brother is a painful reminder of life’s uncertainty.

“Even if we learn nothing else from this, let’s stop saying, ‘Let’s get together soon’,” she said. “Love the people that you love, talk to the people that you want to talk to and stop making excuses. Life is freaking short.”

And more than anything, Dorris wants to find whoever was responsible for the murders.

“Right now it’s an open wound, and I just want answers,” she said. “I want to know what happened and how it got to this.”

Articles in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Press Banner reference a Colter White from Boulder Creek, who would be 54 on Tuesday, who had numerous run-ins with the law throughout his adult life, but ended up a successful Cabrillo College student in his late 30s. He faced up to a year in prison in 2009, when a man from Narcotics Anonymous accused him of assault just two months before White was slated to complete his parole. The parole commissioner ended up dismissing all charges.

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