SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Who murdered a family of three? That’s a question that has plagued Sacramento detectives for decades.
Mick Jacobs and his wife Marcy grew up and first met in the middle-class neighborhood of Lawrence Park. They married in 1991, creating a family with Marcy's nine-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Jenny. Mick’s relationship with Jenny is a sort of testament to the kind of a man he was, said ABC10 investigative reporter Michael Anthony Adams.
“Mick was more than happy to step in as her father; and he was a great father,” he said.
Mick, Marcy and Jenny lived together in a modest house in Land Park, and by all accounts, had an active social life. Many of their friends and were fiercely loyal, especially the friends from their childhood.
"Mick was a great friend. He would do anything for anybody. And that, later in life, would end up getting him killed," Adams said.
On Jan. 13, 1991, the family of three were enjoying their Sunday together, getting ready for the week ahead. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But later that evening, someone paid them a visit.
Neighbors said they didn’t hear anything unusual, but the next day, detectives uncovered a violent scene after Marcy didn't show up for work.
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Mick, Marcy and Jenny had all been brutally murdered inside their home.
"Who would do that? Who would kill the child? What would be the purpose of killing a small child? And so, now, I start gearing myself… because these are not ordinary people that I'm going to be looking for," Sacramento Police Det. John Cabrera, said.
For the next several days, investigators began piecing together what they thought the timeline might have been, interviewing neighbors, friends and family members.
The man at the center of the investigation early on was Mick’s childhood friend from Lawrence Park. The key piece of evidence? A large safe found in the family’s garage.
Cabrera made a vow to those responsible.
"Get ready for a knock on your door sooner or later. Because it's going to happen... sooner, or later," he said.
Adams joins the True Crime Chronicles podcast to discuss the haunting Sacramento triple-murder case and what happens when childhood friends take different paths in life, that ultimately leads to homicide.
You can download and subscribe to True Crime Chronicles on any podcast platform, including Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and Apple Podcasts.
You also can listen to the episode in the player below beginning Monday morning.