Caribbean Cold Case Cracked

A 75-year-old former sailor from Northern California has been arrested in the case of two 25-year-olds who were killed and dumped off a boat in 1978. A resident of Paradise, CA, Silas Duane Boston was indicted last week in US District Court in Sacramento. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the slaying of the British travelers in the Caribbean. Christopher Farmer and his girlfriend, Peta Frampton, had been passengers on a cruise aboard Boston’s boat out of Belize.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the indictment stated that Boston, then 37, promised to take the couple to Mexico. "But instead Farmer was beaten with a billy club, stabbed in the chest with a fillet knife and tied up after an apparent argument on the boat with Boston, who also tied up Frampton and then pushed them overboard, the FBI said. Their bodies were later found off the coast of Guatemala," reported Peter Hecht on December 8.

The crime was allegedly committed in front of Boston’s two sons, Russell, age 11, and Vince, age 13, who sailed aboard the boat with him. Apparently the boys were afraid to talk to authorities at the time, as their father had threatened to kill them too.

The Caribbean case came to light during investigations into an even older cold case, the disappearance of Boston’s wife May Lou, who was last seen in Sacramento in 1968. There may be other victims as well.