Full Notification

Manuel Salmeron Manzanares, age 36, formerly of Santa Barbara, was arrested for the 1997 murder of Linda Louise Archer, a homeless resident of Santa Barbara who was 43-years old at the time of her death.

On the morning of August 16, 1997 Archer was attacked and beaten to death at her campsite located near the southbound HWY 101 off-ramp at Castillo Street. The incident was investigated by officers and detectives of the Santa Barbara Police Department. The following day Gregory Gavin, a mentally ill transient, was initially arrested for the crime. Gavin had been at the crime scene and was in possession of property belonging to the victim. Further investigation, however, established that Gavin did not kill Archer and he was released from custody.

In 2000 John Dalton was arrested for the crime after he allegedly confessed to a cellmate in Corcoran State Prison that he had killed Archer. At the time of the murder Dalton had been an associate of Archer and had lied to investigators about his relationship with her and his whereabouts when the crime occurred. DNA evidence collected at the crime scene was analyzed following Dalton’s arrest; however it was found to not match that of Dalton. The case against Dalton was subsequently dismissed; his statements in prison were likely made to bolster his status among his fellow inmates.

With all investigative leads now exhausted this case was reclassified as a “cold case homicide.” SBPD cold case homicides are reviewed on a recurring basis by investigators assigned to the department’s Major Investigation Team to determine if additional leads have developed that warrant further investigation. Created in mid-2012, the Major Investigation Team is a multi-disciplinary cadre of personnel that assist with the investigation of major incidents, including cold case homicides. In December 2012 Sergeant Bryan Jensen, then a Crimes Against Persons detective assigned to the Major Investigation Team, resubmitted DNA evidence in this case to the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services laboratory for further analysis. On February 4, 2013 the DNA evidence from this case was found to match a DNA profile in CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. The matched profile was that of Manzanares, a federal inmate in custody for illegally reentering the United States after previously being deported as a convicted felon. Manzanares was scheduled to be released and deported to Mexico in 2015.

In the months following the identification of Manzanares as a suspect in this case, SBPD Crimes Against Persons detectives reexamined the evidence, investigated Manzanares’s background, and located and interviewed his family members and an associate. Additionally, on July 14, 2014 SBPD Detective Andy Hill interviewed Manzanares about his involvement in the case at the United States Penitentiary at Lompoc, where he was in custody. The investigation indicates that Manzanares is responsible for the murder of Linda Archer. On May 11, 2015 Detective Hill obtained a $1,000,000.00 arrest warrant for Manzanares for that crime. Manzanares was released from federal custody on June 12, 2015 and subsequently arrested on the aforementioned warrant and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail.