Actress and former NFL cheerleader Linda Sobek vanished in 1995. Evidence in a suspect’s SUV led police to uncover her murder and burial in the fores
05:00 ET, 28 Feb 2026
Linda Sobek
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NFL cheerleader Linda Sobek vanished before being found dead in a shallow grave(Image: Getty Images)
A former NFL cheerleader with a seemingly bright future ahead of her had her life tragically cut short in a brutal murder case.
Linda Sobek was raised in Los Angeles County, California, alongside her brother Steve. By the age of 20, she had already achieved an impressive milestone, becoming a member of the Los Angeles Raiders cheerleading team.
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Beyond cheerleading, Linda hoped to pursue acting and modeling. By 1995, she was beginning to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry. She even received a call from a freelance photographer offering her a job opportunity and an upcoming audition for a guest role on the popular sitcom Married with Children. She assured her mother, Elaine, that she would be home in time for the audition.
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On the morning of November 16, 1995, Linda failed to make her usual call to her mother. Concerned by her sudden disappearance, her family quickly filed a missing persons report.
A few days later, a member of the maintenance crew in the Angeles National Forest contacted police after discovering professionally taken photographs of Linda discarded in a trash can. Following this lead, authorities visited the location and found a lease agreement for a Lexus SUV signed by an individual named Charles Rathbun.
Linda Sobek
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Traces of blood in an SUV led police to uncover Linda Sobek’s shocking death(Image: Getty Images)
While police were investigating, they received a call from Charles Rathbun himself. He explained that he had encountered Linda on the morning of her disappearance, and that their meeting had taken place at a chain restaurant.
He later claimed that their interaction had been brief and purely business-related. When questioned about the lease agreement and the photographs of Linda, detectives grew suspicious and decided to inspect his SUV. Using luminol to examine the interior, they discovered traces of human blood and saliva—not just on the seats, but also on a car cover hidden in the storage compartment.
Chris Edgar
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The 1995 murder of Linda Sobek stunned Hollywood(Image: Forensic Files)
Faced with the evidence, Charles admitted that he had taken Linda on a modeling trip through the Mojave Desert in his SUV. He claimed that during the photoshoot, he lost control of the vehicle and struck her, then panicked and buried her body in a shallow grave in the forest.
On November 24, 1995, Linda’s body was discovered, and Charles, 38, was subsequently arrested for his involvement in her disappearance and death.
An autopsy report revealed that Linda had died as a result of asphyxiation, which was the result of being strangled while someone sat on her back. She had also been sodomized with a foreign object before being raped. She had ligature marks on her ankles, which indicated that she was bound, but nothing on her body indicated that she had been hit by a vehicle.
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Charles was found guilty of both murder in the first degree and rape by the jury after a five-week trial. Subsequently, in December 1996, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.