Final Moments on Oxygen: What happened to Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen?

The tragic double homicide of Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance, Jason Allen, drew national attention for 15 years as the detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department struggled to find a lead to the perpetrator. The couple were shot dead on the night of August 14 or the early hours of August 15, 2004, as they slept on Fish Head Beach.

Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen were on their road trip down the California coast and had resorted to their sleeping bags, unable to find accommodation for the night. Their bodies were recovered on August 18, 2004, and a scramble for the perpetrator ensued.

The Final Moments season 2 episode 12 airs on December 31, 2023, at 7 pm EST on Oxygen and showcases the Jenner Beach slayings. As the synopsis reads,

"When Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen are found shot to death on a Northern California beach, police must trace their trail on the camping trip to find clues to their killer."

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Who were Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen? Details explored

Lindsay Christine Cutshall was born on September 9, 1981, in Fresno, Ohio, to parents Kathy Cutshall and Chris Cutshall. Jason Scott Allen grew up in Zeeland, Michigan, with parents Delores Allen and Bob Allen. Both Lindsay and Jason were brought up in the Midwestern United States.

Lindsay Cutshall met Allen when she was studying at the Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia, and they started seeing each other. They got engaged to one another after six weeks of dating and were slated to get married in the autumn of 2004.

Cutshall and Allen worked as counselors at Rock-N-Water, a Christian summer camp in El Dorado County, California, when they left on a road trip in a 1992 red Ford Tempo up the California coast. The couple were last located at the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on August 14, 2004, going by their credit card transactions.

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What happened to Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen?

The 22-year-old Cutshall and her 26-year-old fiancé, Allen, were allegedly unable to find a room for themselves at the River's End motel when they made a stop at the small town of Jenner in Sonoma County, California.

The couple decided to spend the night in an adventurous fashion and resorted to camping on Fish Head Beach, which was a mile away from the establishment. They left their Ford Tempo along Highway 1 as Jason Allen scribbled in the visitors’ log kept close to the beach,

“As I stir this Mac & Cheese, I think to myself what a wonderful life.”

The bodies of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen were discovered on August 18, 2004, when a man stranded on a cliff above Fish Head Beach called for the Sheriff's helicopter from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department.

Cutshall and Allen were found shot in the head with a .45 caliber Marlin 1894 long rifle model, either a semi-automatic - a rather uncommon type of weapon to own, according to SF Gate. The gun seemed to have a hand-loaded ammunition mechanism. The casings were missing from the crime scene.

Additionally, Cutshall and Allen's belongings were in place when they were found dead in their sleeping bags. Neither were s*xually assaulted as well. The investigators ruled out murder-suicide as the cause of death but were also grappling for clues to solve the mysterious deaths.

The double homicide gained national attention, and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department started reaching out to the public with a $50,000 reward for information. The information about new evidence was released in 2006, wherein poems, an empty 40-ounce bottle of Camo beer, a journal from a driftwood hut, a hat, and drawings made on driftwood were made public in the hopes of leads.

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Shaun Michael Gallon, a self-identified survivalist, was eventually convicted and tried for the 2004 Jenner Beach slayings. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole plus another 94 years in state prison in July 2019.