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My Sister’s Keeper: The Brutal Murders of Twins, Julie, and Jill Hansen

Kym L Pasqualini
8 min readNov 27, 2022

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Twins, Jill and Julie Hansen, were both murdered on November 14, 1986, in Willow Creek, California. Photo courtesy of Unsolved Mysteries.

In 1971, Hans and Betty Hansen moved to Willow Creek, California, with their four children Donald “Donny,” Becky, and twins Julie and Jill. Becky and Donny were both Betty’s children from a previous marriage.

Willow Creek is a rugged mountain community nestled in the Six Rivers National Forest bordering the Trinity/Shasta/Cascade Region in northern California, near the Oregon border. Hans operated a logging supply business in a warehouse next to their mobile home.

Hans and Betty describe their twin daughters as friendly and caring young girls with the world in front of them.

“Jill and Julie were good kids. They were a little shy,” said Hans. “They would kind of be more friendly to underdog people and they were really popular girls in school. So, if a new person came to school or something, that wasn’t taken in so much by the other people, they would befriend them.”

Their life was good until the evening of November 14, 1986. At approximately 11:00 pm, the sixteen years old twins were in their bedroom getting ready for bed. Donny, 21, was on the living room couch as he was visiting from his home in Fortuna, over 70 miles away.

Around 3:00 am, Betty smelled smoke and Hans opened the door to find the hallway engulfed in…

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Kym L Pasqualini
Kym L Pasqualini

Written by Kym L Pasqualini

A veteran crime victim advocate who loves to write. Founder and CEO of the National Center for Missing Adults from 1994–2010.

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