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California woman suspects relative was a serial killer after uncovering family secrets: ‘It shook me’
Sierra Barter has wondered if her step-grandfather could have been a serial killer.
“I remember my mom mentioned she Googled the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders,” the 32-year-old told Fox News Digital. “She was freaked out about it. … And I was just like, ‘This is too much. I can’t think about this right now.’
“But then, maybe a couple of days later, I went, and I looked at it – really looked at it,” she shared. “It shook me. It is not a fun thing to imagine that somebody that you spent time with or that you have photos of yourself with … could have committed these kinds of crimes. … It’s an unsettling feeling.”
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Sierra Barter discovered a new side to her late step-grandfather, Jim Mordecai. (Max)
The California woman’s quest to uncover the truth is being explored in a new four-part documentary on Max, “The Truth About Jim.” It details how Jim Mordecai, a respected high school teacher and star football player, had a history of alleged physical violence and sexual assault against women and girls.
The docuseries features interviews with Mordecai’s daughters, extended family members, a private investigator and law enforcement.
Sierra Barter is hopeful for justice for the victims of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. (Max)
Mordecai died in 2008 at age 67. Barter was 15 at the time. But there have always been rumblings about who Mordecai really was. And when Barter finally began asking questions, she wasn’t prepared for the answers.
“After he died, that’s when I learned the truth about what caused my mother to have a separation from my grandmother,” she said. “Then it started to make sense about why there was so much division in the family.”
Sierra Barter spoke to several women in “The Truth About Jim,” including her grandmother, Judy Mordecai, who has since changed her last name. (Max)
Growing up, Barter always knew that her mother, Shannon, detested Mordecai. She even went a full decade without speaking to her mother Judy, Mordecai’s third wife.
“It really started with Sierra talking to her family about Jim,” director Skye Borgman told Fox News Digital. “That’s when they opened up to her about how evil he was to so many women. … Jim’s family was traumatized. … And it was hard to hear stuff like that. But it was also very humanizing and very brave.”
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The documentary alleged Mordecai repeatedly raped one of his stepdaughters from the time she was 13 years old. Other family members and alleged victims claimed the patriarch terrorized them with threats and violence. Some women in the documentary alleged Mordecai viciously bullied them and that he preyed on teen girls.
Several of Jim Mordecai’s accusers spoke out in the documentary. (Max)
“Sitting down with my grandma was hard,” Barter admitted. “I’m very, very close to her. She was always milk and cookies grandma … but it was difficult to hear these things about someone I love so much. … But it was also such an honor to get to know her as a woman and understand how strong she was and what she went through.
“Hearing my aunt’s stories had a huge impact on me,” Barter added. “We were thankful we were free of Jim at that moment. … It was hard to hear how these women, women I shared giggles with, who dressed me up like a doll and all of that, were enduring such suffering behind closed doors. It was heartbreaking. … It was devastating to hear what was taken from them at the hands of their father.”
Sierra Barter looking at photos of Jim Mordecai. (Max)
Through conversations with loved ones, Barter made a disturbing connection between Mordecai and the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. The series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving young women took place in the North Bay Area between 1972 and 1973. Two other suspects include serial killers Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer. Three of the victims had been bound and two were hogtied.
Sierra Barter wondered if Jim Mordecai could have been the Zodiac Killer. However, the documentary showed there wasn’t any compelling evidence to support that claim. Barter still believes there may be a connection between Mordecai and the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. (Max)
The documentary alleged Mordecai frequently threatened to hogtie women and “throw them into a ditch.” He also allegedly threatened to kill one of his ex-wives when she asked for a divorce and said, “If you try to get the girls, I will slit their throats,” referring to their children.
Mordecai also kept a collection of cheap, random women’s jewelry.
Sierra Barter said she was stunned by her family’s revelations. (Max)
The documentary revealed Barter handed over some of Mordecai’s personal belongings containing possible DNA to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation is still ongoing, it noted.
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Sierra Barter, her mother Shannon Barter (right) and grandmother Judy Mordecai (left) at a storage unit looking at Jim Mordecai’s knife. (Max)
“These cases are very old,” Barter admitted. “There’s a lot of evidence that isn’t there anymore. There’s a lot of follow-up that needs to happen. A lot of people have passed away. But I’m still hopeful. Maybe there’s a chance we can finally get some answers for these families.”
Sierra Barter driving in Santa Rosa. (Max)
At one point in the documentary, Barter wondered if there was a possibility Mordecai could have been the Zodiac Killer. The identity of the infamous murderer, who killed at least five people during the ‘60s, is still unknown today. However, the documentary showed that there wasn’t enough compelling evidence to link Mordecai to the crimes. Her theory ultimately unravels.
In 2021, a team of specialists who investigate cold cases, known as The Case Breakers, claimed the Zodiac Killer was Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. However, no one has ever been charged or identified in the murders.
San Francisco Police circulated this composite of the Bay Area’s “Zodiac Killer.” (Getty Images)
At the time, Fox News Digital reached out to the Vallejo Police Department and the FBI and unsuccessfully tried reaching out to relatives of Poste. The San Francisco Police Department said it was unable to speak about potential suspects in the Zodiac case because it remains an ongoing investigation.
Arthur Leigh Allen, who has been frequently listed as a suspect, died in 1992.
Barter is still waiting for answers. But she feels free of Mordecai and his shadow, she said.
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Sierra Barter said she “gained her family back” after the documentary’s release. (Max)
“I’m just really happy I gained my family back,” Barter said. “It’s not fun to have a fractured family. … But I’m grateful that I don’t have to live with Jim lurking in the sphere anymore. … And I’m so grateful to be surrounded by a group of women reminding me to speak up.
“There’s not a lot of Jim’s childhood that survived,” Barter reflected. “I can only assume that people who are hurt tend to hurt other people. But I don’t want to make excuses for him. There is always an opportunity to get help, which he did not choose to do. I’m not sure why he did the things that he did. I think he was feeling powerless, and that’s why he took his anger out on people and tried to take their power.
“The Truth About Jim” is available for streaming. (Max)
“But, frankly, I’m not so sure if I want to know why. I’m just thankful that these women are now speaking up against him. He’s not able to rest with the idea that he was this great man because we all know that he was not.”
“The Truth About Jim” is streaming on Max.
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NFL Draft prospects rate themselves on Madden
USAT’s Chris Bumbaca asks some of the top NFL Draft prospects what they would rate themselves in Madden after their rookie year.
Sports Seriously
The San Francisco 49ers selected Indiana running back Kaelon Black with the No. 90 overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft on April 24.
Black is a 5-foot-10, 210-pound scat back who ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. In his 2025 season at Indiana, Black ran for 1,040 yards and led the Hoosiers with 10 rushing touchdowns. Black averaged 5.6 yards per carry.
San Francisco is hoping that Black can come in and earn his way to taking some of the wear-and-tear off veteran star running back Christian McCaffrey.
Here’s how USA TODAY Sports grades the 49ers’ third-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft:
San Francisco 49ers draft grade for Kaelon Black
- The grade: C+
- Why? Black goes from a combine snub to a third-round pick. No one will confuse him for Christian McCaffrey, but he can be a reliable inside runner for San Francisco. – Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz
Expert takes on Kaelon Black
- “Compact runner with ideal contact balance for early-down runs but lacks breakaway speed and receiving skills.” – Ayrton Ostly
- “A 1,000-yard runner for the national champs last season has the goods to take some snaps off Christian McCaffrey’s overloaded meter.” – Nate Davis
- “Teams scouting Indiana in the Rose Bowl will likely kick the tires on Kaelon Black. The running backs’s contact balance and powerful run style — he’s a known weight room warrior who squats 500-plus pounds — broke Alabama’s will in the 38-3 win. He always finds a way to fall forward and will fight for tough yardage. He didn’t get a combine invite, but shined on Pro Day with an impressive 4.4-second 40-yard dash and 37.5 vertical jump.” — Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times
49ers 2026 NFL Draft picks
- 2nd Round, No. 33 overall: De’Zhaun Stribling, WR, Mississippi
- 3rd Round, No. 70 overall: Romello Height, DE/OLB, Texas Tech
- 3rd Round, No. 90 overall: Kaelon Black, RB, Indiana
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton have spent dozens of drafts inside team headquarters during their respective decades-long careers in the NFL.
They have rarely waited so long to get in on the action.
The Broncos on Friday selected Texas A&M defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim with the 66th pick. That came at the top of the third round, after the Broncos acquired a sixth-round pick from the Bills to hop back from the 62nd spot. The result was that the Broncos, for only the third time in franchise history, did not make a first- or second-round pick during a draft.
“It fell like we thought it would,” Paton said.
The Broncos never felt the urge to dart up the board in search of an instant upgrade. It was the continuation of a message the Broncos have sent to members of their roster this offseason, a group that finished 4 points shy of a trip to the Super Bowl. Denver may not travel the same path in their championship quest this season, but it’ll largely be bringing the same cast on the journey.
Denver has added exactly one veteran free agent since the new league year began in March: Tycen Anderson, a part-time safety and full-time special teamer. The Broncos on Friday became the only team in the league to end Day 2 having made only a single pick.
There was the major splash, of course, that brought dynamic wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to Denver. Can you imagine the pitchforks that would be out in the Mile High City if Waddle hadn’t penguin-danced into town back in March?
“Yesterday, that was a boring day,” Paton said of the draft’s opening round Thursday. “But we forget that we did trade (their first-round pick) for one of the better receivers in the league, so it was a good day.”
Go ahead and scan the initial 53-man roster the Broncos put together last fall, the one that embarked upon a journey that ended with the AFC’s No. 1 seed. A conservative projection right now could point to somewhere between around 43 and 45 of those same players being on the roster that Payton and Paton put together ahead of their 2026 season opener in September. Open starting spots on this roster? They are in short supply. The foundation is largely set.
Quietly, though, the Broncos have set themselves up for a substantial Saturday. The trade with Buffalo pushed Denver’s total of Day 3 picks to seven. The work they do with that capital will be critical to Denver’s quest to ensure its status as title contenders becomes an annual occurrence for the foreseeable future. A massive contract for quarterback Bo Nix looms, but that’s an anchor only if the Broncos can’t continue to reinforce critical rotational spots on their roster through the draft.
And that doesn’t have to come, Paton said, with the glitzy Day 1 and Day 2 selections that garner all the headlines.
“As we go through our discussions, these two fourth-round picks will define our draft,” Paton said. “We should, if we’re doing our job, hit on the second-round (pick), now third. It’s really the middle-round picks that define your draft. We’re looking for young developmental backups with traits that we can develop.”
Onyedim fits that description. After four years at Iowa State, where he played one season with current Broncos defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, Onyedim transferred to Texas A&M in 2025 and put together his best season. Importantly, the scheme at Texas A&M under defensive coordinator Mike Elko showcased his ability as a one-gap interior pass rusher.
“That defensive scheme sometimes, that’s one of the challenges to projecting (a defensive lineman),” Payton said. “The importance of him at the A&M exposure, you got to see a guy play a different position or technique. I think that probably helped a lot of teams (with Onyedim’s evaluation), not just us.”
Uwazurike produced his best season with the Broncos in 2025, his third in the NFL. He’ll enter the final year of his contract this season while playing alongside Onyedim and Sai’vion Jones, the second-year player whom Denver selected out of LSU in the third round last year. The Broncos lost John Franklin-Myers in free agency after he produced 14 1/2 sacks the past two seasons, but the Broncos are taking a developmental approach in replacing his production, while planning to lean more on freshly extended veteran Malcolm Roach.
It’s not a flashy process, but it’s one, extrapolated at positions across the roster, that explains how the Broncos have steadily risen from a five-win outfit the year before Payton arrived in 2022 to a team that ended Kansas City’s near-decade run atop the AFC West.
“The reason why we’ve been so good the last couple of years is because of our depth, and where you get that depth is the third day,” Paton said. “They may be backups in Year 1 like (outside linebacker) Nik Bonitto or (cornerback) Riley Moss, and then in Year 2, if you hit on them, maybe you get a starter or a key contributor. That is what we are looking for on Day 3.”
Bonitto (a late second-round pick in 2022) and Moss (third round in 2023) were actually Day 2 selections, but the Broncos have found other impact pieces on the draft’s final day since Paton became the team’s general manager in 2021. Edge rusher Jonathon Cooper, center Luke Wattenberg, offensive lineman Alex Forsyth, safety and special teams ace JL Skinner, wide receiver Troy Franklin and Uwazurike are all starters or rotational contributors taken in the fourth round or later. The Broncos drafted wide receiver Devaughn Vele in the seventh round in 2024 and were then able to flip him for one of the fourth-round picks they have in this draft in a trade with the Saints last August.
The reality is that good teams with complete rosters are rarely the most buzzy teams during the NFL Draft or the offseason writ large. The Broncos have embodied that truth to the highest degree in the months since their special season ended on the doorstep of a Super Bowl appearance.
Saturday could nonetheless prove to be a pivotal day for the Broncos. The pieces they need to make a championship run in 2026 are in place. But making similar chases in the seasons to follow demands that they hit the defining Day 3 picks ahead.
“We feel good about where we are at, and we feel really good about the day,” Paton said. “We feel good about the first day (of the draft). We got Waddle. Then, we got (Onyedim), who we really like. (Saturday), we’re going to have a good day.”
The last time the Broncos didn’t make a first- or second-round pick in a draft was 1995. A player they did pick? Running back Terrell Davis.
No pressure, George.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas defensive back Julian Neal became the first Razorback to hear his name called in the NFL Draft on Friday night when the Seattle Seahawks selected him with the 99th overall pick in the third round.
Neal is the first Arkansas defensive back to be drafted since Montaric Brown in 2022 when he was selected by Jacksonville in the seventh round. The Seahawks picked a Razorback for the first time in a decade when they tabbed the late RB Alex Collins in the fifth round of the 2016 draft. Neal’s selection in the third round makes it consecutive years a Hog has been called after Isaac TeSlaa (Detroit) and Landon Jackson (Buffalo) were third-round picks last year.
In his lone season on The Hill, Neal started all 12 games while making 55 tackles and intercepting a pair of passes. He quickly impacted the Razorbacks’ secondary in the team’s second game of the season with 11 tackles, one interception and a pair of pass breakups to become the first Arkansas defensive back since 1997 with 11+ tackles, 1+ interceptions and 2+ pass breakups.
Neal began his career at Fresno State, where he played four seasons. His final season in 2024, the San Francisco native played in all 12 games, including four starts, making 35 tackles with five tackles for loss and two interceptions.
For his career, he recorded 99 tackles with 8.5 tackles for loss and four interceptions across 42 games.
The NFL Draft’s final day, featuring rounds 4-7, begins tomorrow at 11 a.m. on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NFL Network.
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Neal selected by Seattle in 3rd round of NFL Draft
