Memorial Service...

On the morning of August 15, last week Friday, there was a beautiful memorial service held on a small beach not far from the one where Jason & Lindsay died on 10 years earlier. This beach was easier to access, which is why it was chosen for the memorial service. However, the family and several others later traveled to Fish Head Beach, which is where Jason & Lindsay died. The following is a great article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (PDF version here) with highlights and photos:

Couple Slain in Jenner Remembered — 10 Years Later

BY MARY CALLAHAN

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT ~ August 15, 2014

Kathy and Chris Cutshall remember their daughter Lindsay Cutshall Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 during a memorial service at Goat Rock for their daughter and her fiance Jason Allen, who were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

JENNER — In a moment that combined both a mother’s love and a mother’s loss, Kathy Cutshall raised the flowers to her lips, kissed the bouquet and laid it on the sand where her 22-year-old daughter, Lindsay, was killed a decade earlier.

A separate bunch of blossoms fastened to a simple cane cross lay on the spot where Lindsay’s fiance, Jason Allen, 26, died.

The couple’s bodies were found three days after their deaths at the makeshift beach campsite where they had slept side-by-side.

Gathered in that place Friday on the 10th anniversary of the young couple’s death, family members and other loved ones revisited that dark time when the pair was found after disappearing on a weekend away from the Christian camp near Placerville where they worked.

But those assembled Friday celebrated more than they mourned, rejoicing in the couple’s love and in the enduring faith that has allowed friends and family to carry on, confident that Lindsay and Jason are in a better place where they all one day will be united.

“What happened on that beach... it isn’t the whole story,” Lindsay’s sister, Kerry Croghan, 36, said during an earlier memorial service a short way down the coast at Goat Rock Beach.

“When Satan struck them down, God raised them up,” Lindsay’s father, Chris Cutshall, said.

The Cutshalls — Chris, Kathy, Croghan, her husband, Ben, and their two little boys, all from Fresno, Ohio — were among 50 people who came together from across the continent Friday to honor Lindsay and Jason, whose deaths on the beach below Jenner in 2004 struck fear in the coastal community.

Among them were the camp directors and others from Rock-N-Water, the El Dorado County camp where the engaged couple shared their devout faith and outdoor adventures with young campers in the weeks before their chilling end.

There were close friends and classmates from Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia, and members of the faith family from Fresno (Ohio) Bible Church, where Chris Cutshall is pastor. Others came from as far away as Toronto.

One college friend, Christine Perdue, took a Greyhound bus cross-country from West Virginia to be with the Cutshalls and express her continuing love and support.

“It was very important to be here,” said Karie Zeager, Lindsay’s close friend and would-be bridesmaid, now of Lancaster, Pa.

Several detectives and others from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office who have worked the case over the years also attended, including Sheriff Steve Freitas, who became deeply religious after meeting the Cutshalls and on Friday called his religious rebirth “evidence of God’s plan.”

“Only God’s love can take a thing like this and make good out of it,” Freitas said during halting remarks at the service.

Jason Allen’s parents, Delores and Bob Allen of Zeeland, Mich., were unable to come to California. But they sent a message to be read aloud, and said they and other family members would stand on the shore of Lake Michigan in solidarity with those who traveled to the West Coast.

That family and friends should be on the beach as they marked 10 years since the still-unsolved murders occurred was the idea of Kathy Cutshall, who always had regretted never going beyond the top of the bluff and down to the beach where her daughter and a man she now thinks of as a son spent their last earthly moments. That so many others could and would join them wasn’t necessarily anticipated.

But because Fish Head Beach is down such a steep and challenging path from Highway 1, they decided to hold the memorial service at nearby Goat Rock State Beach, which is more readily accessible, the Cutshalls said.

Many arrived shortly before 8 a.m. for a special time of reflection in which, under the guidance of Northern California “earthscape” artist Andreas Amador, they used narrow rakes to trace huge flowers across a large expanse of beach, along with the message, “Lindsay & Jason, Never good-bye,” and “Maranatha,” Greek for “Lord come quickly.”

Kerry Croghan said she learned about Amador through a friend’s posting on Facebook months ago and immediately thought, “This would be amazing to do as part of the memorial,” she said. It provided a chance “to do something beautiful, and not just focus on the negative of the loss and what happened, but on how beautiful their life was,” Croghan said.

“It’s a healing thing,” Perdue said.

Kathy Cutshall said she and her family have spent previous anniversaries of the slaying with the Allens, who they said supported her need to go down to the beach this year.

“I just wanted to be in that last spot where she was last on Earth,” Kathy Cutshall said of her daughter, “and it just meant something to me to sit there and see the view and see what she saw. I couldn’t think of any other place I wanted to be on the 10th-year anniversary.”

When it was time to caravan up Highway 1 from Goat Rock for the hike to Fish Head Beach, about half of the group made the trip, recalling once they arrived at the site the words Jason and Lindsay had penned on their last night alive — Lindsay observing what she described as an awesome God in the sunset’s reflection on the cliff face above the beach; Jason cooking macaroni and cheese and reflecting on his wonderful life and “the wonderful woman” God had brought to him.

Gazing on Friday across the beach and out to sea, where two sea lions frolicked against the sound of shorebirds and rising surf, Chris Cutshall said, “You can see why they came here.”

It was he and his wife who lingered longest, kneeling where they laid the flowers, praying and reflecting on what happened there.

“There wasn’t any closure here today at all,” Chris Cutshall later said. “We already had that. But it just brought a sense of OK. It’s OK. We’ve done what we needed to do today.”

A memorial for Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock, Friday Aug. 15, 2014. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall and Kathy Cutshall with family and friends, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 as they give remembrance for daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas talks with relatives and friends of the Cutshall family, Friday Aug. 15, during a memorial for Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen at Goat Rock. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Craig Lomax embraces Cathy Cutshall as they mourn Cutshall's daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. Lomax is the executive director of the adventure camp where Jason & Lindsay worked, "Rock-n-Water." (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Adam and Sierra Turner listen to a sermon by Chris Cutshall Friday Aug. 15, 2014 at Goat Rock as they mourn Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen. Adam Turner worked with Lindsay and Jason. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall surveys sand art done by family and friends or his daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance, Jason Allen, at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Sand art done by family and friends, Friday Aug. 15, 2014 for Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Kathy Cutshall creates a sand heart Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 for her daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Family and friends give remembrance to Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock after making sand art. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall walks down a hillside Friday August 15, 2014 as he prepares to give remembrance for daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall and Kathy Cutshall help each other down a hillside Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 as they prepare to give remembrance for daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Goat Rock. The two were slain on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Craig Lomax joins Chris and Cathy Cutshall Friday Aug. 15, 2014 as they prepare to place flowers for the Cutshalls' daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris and Cathy Cutshall join Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Thompson, Friday Aug. 15, 2014, as they place flowers for Cutshall's daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

The Cutshalls, Chris and Kathy, mourn their daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Fish Head Beach Friday, Aug. 15, 2014. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

The Cutshalls, left, embrace Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgts. Tim Duke and Dave Thompson, right, Friday Aug. 15, 2014 as they mourn Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen at Fish Head Beach. The two were slain there 10 years ago. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall is joined by friends and family Friday Aug. 15, 2014 as they sing for Cutshall's daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)

Chris Cutshall and Kathy Cutshall give remembrance for their daughter Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach just north of Jenner. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)