Elizabeth Larson – Record-Bee staff
MIDDLETOWN — On a rainy afternoon one year ago today, a 46-year-old Middletown woman reportedly walked away from her home after an argument with her husband.
Since then, Starr Hill”s family, friends and local authorities have searched for her, with the only trace of her a cell phone found alongside a busy highway yielding no clues to her fate.
Starr”s daughter, April Robinson, has struggled to keep her mother”s case very much in people”s minds, holding candlelight vigils and informing the community.
So, where is Starr Hill? Whoever knows for sure hasn”t yet given up the secret.
A stormy marriage
Starr and Curtis Hill lived on 37 acres on Western Mine Road near Middletown. Curtis worked as a firefighter in Contra Costa County. They were married for five years when she went missing.
Repeated calls to Curtis Hill for comment for this story were not returned. But in conversations with the Record-Bee last year shortly after his wife”s disappearance, Curtis Hill said that he and his wife often argued. April Robinson confirmed that her mother and stepfather had a sometimes explosive relationship, punctuated by drinking, fights and periods of forgiveness. Both Curtis Hill and Robinson said that Starr was known to leave for days at a time following arguments with him.
Curtis Hill said he last saw his wife walking away from their home following an argument on the rainy afternoon of May 18, 2005. He reported his wife was wearing jeans, a green sweater and a black leather jacket.
Robinson said a friend of Starr and Curtis reported seeing Starr walking down the highway near Twin Pine Casino in the rain, looking upset. The friend said she didn”t stop but decided to leave Starr alone.
“I don”t hold much stock in that,” said Robinson. If her mother had been near the casino in the rain, Robinson said, she would likely have stopped in and called for someone to pick her up.
Curtis Hill said on May 19 he returned home to find Starr”s purse, makeup bag and some duffel bags gone. He also said he found an angry note indicating she had left.
Robinson said she has never believed that her mother would have left without calling her. And, said Robinson, Starr would certainly not have missed her grandchildren”s birthdays.
Robinson reported her mother missing on May 21. Three days later, Lake County Search and Rescue and K-Corps searched the Hills” property, but found no sign of her.
Curtis Hill”s close friends and family continue to rally around him, saying he has been unfairly focused upon in the effort to find out what happened to his wife.
Within a few months of Starr”s disappearance, Curtis Hill retired from his firefighting job in Contra Costa County and left to spend time in Hawaii, although he has since traveled back and forth between Hawaii and the home he and Starr shared during their marriage.
A missing cell phone
A lead that looked promising took place last October, five months after Starr disappeared. A vineyard worker found a cell phone in brush alongside Highway 29 in Lower Lake that reportedly belonged to Starr Hill. When the man charged the phone and called the last number in its call log, he reached Starr Hill”s mother, 84-year-old Leona Schneider, who lives in Auburn.
Even at that time, however, Sheriff Rod Mitchell cautioned that the phone”s discovery didn”t mean Starr had necessarily been in the area, and authorities didn”t know, ultimately, who discarded it there, especially after forensics testing on the phone brought back no significant findings.
The only thing Mitchell did know for sure was that Starr used the phone for the last time before her disappearance on May 18.
Starr may have made that last call to her mother on May 17, said Robinson, who spoke with Starr for the last time on May 16.
During those last few weeks, said Robinson, she and her mother spoke when Curtis wasn”t around, due to a falling out between he and Robinson over an unpaid cell phone bill. The couple, said Robinson, “were arguing, but that was nothing new.”
A month earlier, the couple returned from Hawaii, Robinson said; there they had bought a cave where they planned to lead spelunking tours. Robinson said Starr and Curtis were planning to return soon to the property, located in Kurtistown near Hilo, Hawaii.
During the May 16 call, Robinson said, Starr “seemed very normal.”
“She made plans to talk to me that Thursday, because Curtis was leaving for work,” she said. “I never heard from her.”
In the days shortly after Starr”s disappearance, the sheriff”s department received reports from people who believed they had seen Starr. The sheriff”s department discounted those apparent leads, however, after thorough scrutiny.
Latest developments
This past February, thanks to Robinson”s lobbying, the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation joined the effort, offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to finding Starr.
Robinson said the sheriff”s detective now on the case, Corey Paulich, has actively kept in contact with her, keeping her “in the loop” on what”s going on. So far, no tips have come in as a result of the reward money, said Robinson, and the investigation appears to be at a standstill.
“It blows my mind,” said Robinson.
Starr was featured on the Nancy Grace Show April 25, said Robinson, but that also didn”t generate any leads.
Robinson said she has a great support network of friends and her family, including sister Terra. “We”ve been spending a lot of time together.”
She credits the Sund/Carrington Foundation for its moral support as she has struggled to cope with her mother”s disappearance.
She”s had no recent contact with Curtis Hill, however, and she said he won”t let her have her mother”s things. Robinson even accused Curtis” property caretaker of shooting a weapon on the property while she held a candlelight vigil for her mother in late December.
Robinson has repeatedly faulted her stepfather for his lack of cooperation with the sheriff”s investigation, which Mitchell has corroborated. Hill has refused to go in for interviews with investigators, take a voice stress analyzer test or allow further searches of his property, according to both Mitchell and Robinson.
“He”s convinced his friends that she”s moved to Oregon to live with some man,” she said.
Last year, during a telephone interview, Curtis Hill suggested a similar scenario to the Record-Bee, that Starr had left with another local man.
“My mom would not stay away from me this long, or my sister, or her grandchildren, or her brothers or her mom,” said Robinson.
The investigation into Starr Hill”s disappearance, said Mitchell, is essentially at a standstill due to lack of any new evidence.
“Unfortunately, it is not one of the cases we”re able to actively investigate,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell, who last year held a press conference to help generate more information on the case, called it an “important” case.
“I”m confident that it”s getting what it needs,” he said.
While cautious about theorizing about what caused her mother”s disappearance, Robinson said she, her family and friends have “all pretty much have the same conclusion, that she”s not coming back alive.”
Robinson said she wants closure, and hopes that her mother will eventually be found and brought home so she can be properly honored.
Contact Elizabeth Larson at elarson@record-bee.com.
One year vigil planned
A vigil to mark the one year anniversary of Starr Hill”s disappearance will take place today at 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 14500 Pearl Ave., Clearlake.
How you can help
If you or anyone you know has information on Starr Hill”s disappearance, call LCSO Detective Corey Paulich, 262-4200.
Group helps families left behind
“When someone in a family disappears, families know to call 911 and file a missing person”s report,” said Kim Petersen, executive director of the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation. “What do you do after that? Most people don”t have any idea. So we take them by the hand and show them the steps to take.”
The foundation Petersen leads is named for Carole Sund, murdered by Cary Stayner in Yosemite National Park in 1999, along with her daughter, Juli, and family friend Silvina Pelosso. The group reaches out to assist the families of missing persons by offering reward money and support.
In the case of Starr Hill, the group is offering a monetary reward for information leading to her being found, either alive or dead.
They help with fliers, teach families to work with law enforcement and, most important, they spend a lot of time listening and offering the families moral support, said Petersen. “They just need someone who they know cares.”
Each case is different, Petersen said. There are many reasons for a person to go missing, from stranger abduction to runaways, and volunteer disappearances (which, she pointed out, aren”t illegal). “You have to take it on a case-by-case basis,” said Petersen.
In its seven-year existence, the Sund/Carrington Foundation has helped bring in 34 murder suspects, three kidnappers of children and found nine missing persons (some alive, some deceased), she said.
The more time passes, the greater the chance of a missing person being found dead, said Petersen. But that doesn”t mean a person can”t be found alive.
And that doesn”t mean loved ones give up the search, Petersen explained. “These families, such as Starr Hill”s family, they”ll never give up. It”s with them every minute of every day.”
Some families the group assists have been looking for missing loved ones for more than 20 years, Petersen reported. One woman, in particular, has been searching for her daughter for 23 years, since the girl disappeared at age 17 from her high school. To this day, the woman stops to look into the eyes of women who are about the age her daughter would be, hoping to recognize her missing child, Petersen said.
“They can”t move forward until they know what”s happened to their loved one,” she said.
For more information about the group, visit www.carolesundfoundation.com.
