Man sentenced for brutal murder of 85-year-old retiree in 1992 Placer cold case
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- Joseph Victor Foster was sentenced for the 1992 brutal murder of Alwin Schoefer.
- DNA evidence identified Foster as the suspect in the Placer County cold case.
- Foster was already in prison for the 1991 murders of a couple in the same foothill town.
A 65-year-old man, who was already convicted of three homicides in the Weimar area, was sentenced last week for a fourth Placer County homicide in a 1992 cold case in which an 85-year-old retiree was brutally murdered in his home before it was set on fire.
On Thursday, Placer Superior Court Judge Suzanne Gazzaniga sentenced Joseph Victor Foster to more than 75 years to life in prison for the death of Alwin Schoefer. It was a homicide investigation that remained unsolved for 33 years until DNA evidence identified Foster as the suspect.
On March 30, Foster pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing Schoefer, who was “beaten, stabbed and shot,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
Schoefer was a widower who lived alone in Weimar, according to previous news stories published in The Sacramento Bee. Customers at a tavern down the street from Schoefer’s home who spoke with him daily have said they knew little about his background, but they believed he was either a retired railroad worker or career military man.
Kristi Hensley, a bartender at the Weimar tavern, described Schoefer as “a very sweet old character,” according to an Aug. 11, 1992, story in The Bee. Acquaintances said Schoefer took frequent walks and was always talking to people, even someone he’d just see on the road.
Robbery a possible motive
On Tuesday, sheriff’s officials said investigators believe Foster was familiar with Schoefer and lived within walking distance of his home. They also said detectives believe robbery may have been a motive in the murder, and Schoefer was known to carry large sums of cash rather than deposit his money in banks.
The murder was initially reported Aug. 6, 1992, as a house fire in Weimar, a town about 10 miles northeast of Auburn near Interstate 80.
Sheriff’s officials said Schoefer was found dead inside his home after it was set on fire. Firefighters arrived and found padlocks on the exterior doors of the burning home.
After the firefighters put out the blaze, authorities found Schoefer’s body inside. He had been beaten, stabbed and shot. Sheriff’s officials said investigators later determined the fire had been intentionally started inside the home before the doors were locked.
Investigators in the homicide case collected evidence in Placer and Nevada counties, including a bag found along a road in Nevada County containing Schoefer’s wallet, identification, coin purse and clothing items, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
No arrests were made, and no suspects were identified in the homicide investigation. Schoefer’s death became a cold case.
DNA identifies murder suspect
The sheriff’s Cold Case Unit, which also includes an investigator from the Placer County District Attorney’s Office, re-examined the homicide investigation and identified evidence suitable for DNA testing. Sheriff’s officials said the investigators had a breakthrough in the case last year, when DNA evidence collected in 1992 linked Foster to Schoefer’s murder.
Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Foster on a murder charge in Schoefer’s death. Foster, who was in the custody of the California Department of Corrections of Rehabilitation, was transferred on March 18, 2025, into sheriff’s custody and booked at the Placer County Jail, where he was held until his sentencing last week.
At the time of his arrest in Schoefer’s murder, Foster was already serving potential life prison sentences for the Jan. 7, 1991, murders of Jacqueline Sue Barton, 33, and Hugh Cleveland Gresham, 37, a couple killed in their Weimar home 19 months before Schoefer was killed.
Sheriff’s officials have said Foster shot Barton and Gresham execution-style in their Placer County home. This homicide investigation also became a cold case. In January 2015, sheriff’s officials announced that investigators working on old unsolved cases came across DNA evidence that later linked Foster to the 1991 shooting of the couple.
When Foster was arrested and charged in the execution-style shooting, he was serving a 50-years-to-life California prison sentence for the 2006 kidnapping and raping of a family member in Modesto.
On Tuesday, sheriff’s officials said Foster also was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1982. That conviction was for a 1980 shooting death of another man near Weimar. With Schoefer’s murder, Foster has been convicted for four homicides that occurred in the Weimar area.
“I applaud the hard work of our Cold Case Unit and investigators, who continue to meticulously comb through every cold case in our county and ensure every piece of evidence that could lead to a killer is tested,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in the news release. “Their expertise in these decades-old cases is paying off. Our work isn’t done. If anything, cases like this strengthen our resolve to keep pushing forward and finding justice.”
Foster on Tuesday was serving his sentences at Wasco State Prison in Kern County.
