 Both Cutshall and Allen were killed with a .45-caliber Marlin rifle as they slept in their sleeping bags on the beach.The Sonoma County Coroner's Office estimated that the couple was slain on either the night of August 14, 2004 or in the early morning hours of August 15, 2004.The case has received considerable national attention, but the crime remained unsolved, until news given at press conference on May 5, 2017, suggesting that authorities had solved the crime.