Noelle Kinzie Russo of Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, California, United States was 16 years old when she was crowned Miss Burlingame 1962 in Burlingame, San Mateo County, California. She entered the beauty pageant to please her mother.
As a teenager, Russo wanted to become a model. She was 5’4″ tall and she weighed 134 pounds.
After Miss Burlingame 1962, Russo did not compete in other beauty pageants and did not pursue a career in modelling. She worked in Colorado, USA as a forest ranger trainee before going back to California and attending Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County.
Russo married and divorced twice. She has one son.
On June 24, 1983, Russo wore a patchwork-print cotton blouse colored red, yellow and blue, according to her friends. In the evening, she went to a bar with her friend Laura Sue Serbin, then 28, a native of Chicago Ridge, Cook County, Illinois, USA.
At the bar, Russo allegedly talked to a former boyfriend. Later that night, she and Serbin got separated.
That was the last time Russo was seen alive. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not she went off with her former boyfriend.
That night, Russo never made it to a bus in Santa Rosa. The bus would have brought her back to Rohnert Park.
On June 27, 1983, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to a report of a deceased woman in of Rohnert Park and found Russo’s naked body near Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. She had been beaten to death.
On October 2, 2023, Alfredo Carretero Jr., 65, of Lakeport, Lake County, California was arrested in Lakeport for Russo’s murder. Whether or not they knew each other is unclear.
Carretero is being held without bail. He was booked into the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility in Santa Rosa.
