Back in the early 1980s, I remember a crime that didn't happen when a bomb attempt and armored car robbery were thwarted. The would-be robbers were spotted at San Juan Park on Mariposa Avenue in Citrus Heights.

– Sharp Eye, Folsom

An improperly parked car and an alert Sunrise Park ranger were credited with foiling a plot to rob an armored car at a Citrus Heights bank.

According to stories in The Bee, ranger Tom Grunwaldt became suspicious when he saw 37-year-old Donald L. Campbell attempting to change a license plate on a car in San Juan Park on April 17, 1984. As Grunwaldt talked to Campbell, he noticed several items in the car, including a portable police scanner and a license plate rigged so it could be placed inconspicuously over another license plate.

After questioning Campbell and his companion, Diane Mary Greer, 30, Grunwaldt summoned sheriff's deputies, who opened the trunk of the car and discovered a flak jacket, ammunition for an automatic weapon and liquid material and fuses for an explosive device.

Campbell and Greer were arrested and tried on federal robbery and conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors said the two had purchased several cars, which they intended to park in the area and blow up to create a diversion while they robbed an armored car at a Bank of America branch on Sunrise Boulevard.

Campbell was subsequently linked to a 1983 armored car heist in Capitola in which $506,000 was stolen, and was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. Greer received a seven-year federal prison sentence.

Remember the woman who was at Thunder Valley Casino and disappeared? Seen on videotape gaming, then leaving the casino and seen in parking lot accompanied by a man who later was charged and incarcerated. Was that woman's body ever found?

– Shirl, Sacramento

The body of 27-year-old Christie Wilson, who disappeared from the Thunder Valley Casino near Lincoln Oct. 5, 2005, has not been found.

A jury was convinced that Mario Flavio Garcia killed her and convicted him of first-degree murder in 2007.

Casino cameras showed Garcia and Wilson gambling together the night of Oct. 4, 2005, and showed them walking toward the parking lot at 1:15 a.m. Oct. 5.

According to stories in The Bee, Placer County sheriff's detectives arrested Garcia after finding hair follicles with Wilson's DNA in and on his car. Later, tiny blood spots matching Wilson's DNA were found on a back seat.

Garcia, a former Auburn resident, was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison and is incarcerated at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran.

I have just learned that a retired co-worker was killed in 2011, but do not have and cannot find any information on his death. Isaac (Ike) Williams lived in the Sacramento area. Any information would be most appreciated.

– James, Oklahoma City, OK

Isaac Williams, 83, was found dead in his south Sacramento home with stab wounds on Jan. 18, 2011.

His grandson, Arondrei Abel-Bey, was arrested on suspicion of homicide. Abel-Bey, his girlfriend, their five children and his grandfather lived in the home near 64th Avenue and Amherst Street.

Police said Abel-Bey and his grandfather had argued and the confrontation turned violent. The grandson is suspected of attacking Williams with his hands, then stabbing him.

Abel-Bei, 34, is being held without bail in Sacramento County jail. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.

In the mid-1990s, a 16-year-old and a father in his early 20s died from gunshot wounds during a party on El Pinzon Court in Rancho Cordova. I lived next door to the house that had the party and the older man was shot in our driveway. Did they ever catch the shooters?

– Lynne, Sacramento

Issach Jerome Ready and Jason Dale Jack were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for killing two people at a Rancho Cordova birthday party in April 1994.

According to stories in The Bee, Jason Joseph Hatch, 16, and Manuel Hernandez, 22, the father of three, were killed when the front yard of a home in the 10000 block of El Pinzon Court off West La Loma Drive was sprayed with gunfire. A neighbor's house also was riddled with bullets.

Ready, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was prosecuted as an adult. He and Jack were convicted of murder and shooting at an inhabited dwelling. A Sacramento County jury also found that the men did the shooting as gang members. Their crimes carried the special circumstance of a multiple murder, leading to the sentence of life without parole.

Ready, now 33, is at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, and Jack, 36, is at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga.

– Cathy Locke

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.