{"id":355,"date":"2026-05-27T21:32:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=355"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:32:48","slug":"40-years-ago-a-daytime-double-killing-rocked-a-sleepy-bay-area-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"40 years ago, a daytime double killing rocked a sleepy Bay Area town"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Friday, Jan. 24, 1986, dawned crisp and sunny on Brighton Drive. Across the street, hundreds of students trudged into Dublin High School, ready for the coming weekend. Some time that morning, neighbors saw a man standing on the lawn of 7168 Brighton, the home of veterinarian Harve Ringheim and his new wife Keiko. But no one thought anything of it until later.<\/p>

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In the late afternoon, 9-year-old Beth Ringheim, Harve\u2019s daughter from his first marriage, arrived at the home for her usual weekend stay with her dad. Her mother waited for Beth to head up the drive and into the house before driving off. The front door was unlocked, as it normally was, in anticipation of Beth\u2019s visit.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

At first, Beth couldn\u2019t understand what she was seeing. Her stepmother was slumped over in the living room, her head in a bucket of water and hands duct-taped behind her back. Her father was bound and bloody. Beth raced out of the house and called a neighbor for help. When Dublin police arrived, there was nothing they could do. The Ringheims were dead.<\/p><\/div>

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Forty years later, the killings of Harve and Keiko Ringheim remain a mystery that has bedeviled generations of Alameda County detectives. The case now rests in the hands of Alameda County Sheriff\u2019s Office detective Pat Smyth who, in a twist of fate, was nearly a witness to the shocking daytime crime. While Harve and Keiko were being targeted, Smyth was across the street, attending class at Dublin High.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cI remember this vividly when it happened,\u201d he said over the phone last week. \u201cDublin was much different than it is now. It was much smaller. There are roughly 4,000 kids in high school. At the time, we had 800. It was a very small town. Everybody kind of knew everyone.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Harve Ringheim was no stranger to the community. At 41 years old, he was a successful veterinarian at a clinic in Pleasant Hill, and he\u2019d dabbled as a real estate developer, helping create a $1.3 million shopping center at Taylor Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road. He was also on the\u00a0board of directors for a summer homestay program for Japanese exchange students. In 1978, a young college-aged woman named Keiko was sponsored by the Ringheims to stay with them. After the Ringheims\u2019 marriage ended in divorce, Keiko, then in her late 20s, began dating Harve. In March 1985, the couple married.<\/p><\/div>

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On Jan. 23, 1986, Keiko and Harve returned home from a ski trip. As far as anyone knows, they spent an ordinary evening at home. The next morning, around 10 a.m., Harve went to a nearby car wash. That was the last time anyone saw either Ringheim alive.<\/p><\/div>

Sometime between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., a person, or multiple people, entered the home. Keiko was bound with duct tape and strangled. Harve was found with his hands tied behind his back, dead from multiple stab wounds. \u201cWe believe it almost looks like she was done away with first and he came in on them,\u201d the Dublin police chief said at the time.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

There was no sign of sexual assault, robbery or forced entry \u2014 although the door was routinely left unlocked on Fridays for Beth. Theories as to why the Ringheims were targeted circulated widely in the sleepy suburb, ranging from drug dealers looking for tranquilizers used by veterinarians, to someone targeting\u00a0Keiko specifically. Over the years, investigators have suggested it looked like a murder for hire. But 40 years later, Smyth said there\u2019s still \u201cno overriding, obvious motive.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cThat\u2019s the big question,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy? I wish I knew the answer to that.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

In 2011, DNA tests of evidence from the scene developed two male profiles. They haven\u2019t matched any known offenders in law enforcement databases though, Smyth said, and additional lab work over the years hasn\u2019t pointed to any clear-cut answers. Forensic genealogy is a possibility \u2014 Smyth has used it on other cold cases \u2014 but for now, detectives have tried every avenue currently available to them, he said.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Still,\u00a0Smyth believes there\u2019s a chance the Ringheim case could be closed someday.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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\u201cI\u2019m always hopeful there is. We wouldn\u2019t be doing the work on this case if we didn\u2019t think this was a possibility,\u201d he said. \u201cYou gotta look at it that way. There\u2019s pieces of evidence, trace evidence, that 10 years you thought you could do nothing with. And now you can.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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