The Hill Top Motel at 1607 South Coast Highway in Oceanside, California has been described as an “okay place if you’re running out of options.” It has become sort of a fixture in the South Oceanside neighborhood. Far from a vacation destination resort, the Hill Top Motel is a low budget option for travelers and locals.
Regardless of its less than stellar reputation, the Hill Top has a history dating back to 1948 and includes two tragic events, a suicide and an unsolved murder.
The first deadly incident was the suicide of Flora Dodson in 1954. She and her husband were the original owners of the motel property.
Forrest Leroy and Flora (Kettering) Dodson were both natives of Illinois, married in 1907. The couple had two daughters, Marie and Edith. In 1948 the Dodsons purchased property on the southwest corner of Morse and Hill Streets (Coast Highway) from Clifford Brodie. In June of that year a permit was issued to build a small motel called Dodson’s Motel at 1607 South Hill Street for a cost of $19,000. A neon sign was erected in December 1948 and the motel was completed and ready for guests.
Flora and Forrest led quiet lives on the busy Highway 101. They lived on the property while managing the auto court and visited often with their children and grandchildren.
Sadly, Forrest Dodson died suddenly on May 29, 1954. After 47 years of marriage, Flora was distraught and despondent with grief. She told her daughter Edith Lipman that she did not care to live any longer and that she had contemplated jumping off the end of the Oceanside pier.
On December 12th, just seven months after the death of her beloved husband, Flora ended her life. She was discovered by her son-in-law Othel Bert, who was visiting from the Midwest. He found her lifeless body lying on the floor in front of the kitchen gas range. Detectives from the Oceanside Police Department responded to the call and as they examined the scene, they noted that Flora had cut her left wrist with a safety razor blade, which was found on the floor near her right hand. A rifle and .22 cartridges were also found but unused. Instead, Flora had turned off the pilot lights in her wall heaters and stove, turned on the gas and positioned herself on a kitchen stool until she was overcome by fumes. The coroner ruled her death a suicide.
After her mother’s death, daughter Edith Lipman acquired the motel property which had since been renamed the Hill Top Motel. It was sold to Leonard and Bessie Robinson in 1957. The Robinsons lived on the property in the “owner apartment” and managed the 8-unit motel, which advertised “all the comforts at home” including carpet, kitchens and free TV.
By the mid 1960s the Hilltop Motel was expanded with a two-story unit on the north end of the property. The Robinsons sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. William and Virginia Giffin who sold it to Dwight M. Pankey in 1970.
It was purchased by Larry and Twyla Shaffer in 1974 and by 1976 the Hilltop Motel was offering daily rates of $10 and a weekly rate of $63. In 1976, the property was purchased by Joe C. Iski and John Isky. They sold the property to Yee Chen Yeh of San Diego in 1979.
The clientele in the 1970s and 1980s were much different than the guests who stayed in the Dodson Motel in the 1940s and 1950s. Things were changing in Oceanside with a rising crime rate, even in South Oceanside, which is a vibrant and trendy neighborhood today. In 1988 the crime rate had increased 24 percent and it was reported that Oceanside had the biggest increase in violent crime in the entire state for the first six months of the year.
Violent crime which included Oceanside’s first reported homicide of the year – at the Hilltop Motel. On January 22, 1988 Rocco Anthony William Pittro, Jr. (aka Pietro) was found murdered in Room No. 8. Pittro had been discovered by the motel’s manager. Left in a pool of blood, he had been stabbed seven times.
The manager told police that Pittro and a man by the name of Carl had been seen together, and that Pittro had told him he would have a male friend visiting. Carl was described as a black male 25 to 30 years of age, 160 pounds 5’10“. The manager of the motel had gone to the room to check on him the following day, presumably after Pittro missed check out, entered the room with a pass key and discovered the dead guest. The Oceanside Police Department was notified and Officer P. Coppack arrived at 12:43 PM.
Pittro was born August 7, 1927 in Illinois. He was divorced and living in Mission Viejo. Differing reports list his occupation as an interior decorator to construction.
The coroner’s report stated that he was found in “a prone position on the bed and his body was cold to the touch.” There were three stab wounds to the back of his body and multiple stab wounds to his chest and abdomen, as well as a laceration to his left hand. The bedding under his body was blood soaked, and there was dried blood spattered on the wall opposite the foot of the bed and on the head of the bed. More specifically, Pittro was stabbed in the heart as well as in the lungs and suffered from multiple blunt injuries. The coroner also noted that no drugs were detected.
The murder weapon was not found but Homicide Detective Sheila Hancock reported “I think we’ve got some good physical evidence.” The victim’s 1985 Nissan pickup truck had been stolen and later recovered abandoned in central Los Angeles.
In March of that year, a 16-year-old Oceanside youth was arrested. He was booked into juvenile hall, but his name was withheld because of his age. Three days later, he was released. Detective Hancock said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the teenager at the time. Police said the teen lived with his parents on nearby Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and they continued to look for information linking the teenager to the killing.
In September of 1988 Oceanside detectives released a crude sketch looking for someone by the name of Chris or Carl. But with no suspects in custody, the case eventually went cold and then forgotten.
However, with properly stored evidence, this case could likely be solved today with DNA or even fingerprinting.
The murder of Rocco Pittro is one of several unsolved cases in the files of the Oceanside Police Department, including Zelda Lamore found murdered in a downtown hotel in 1953, the murder of cab driver Ray Davis in 1962, the murder of Charlleen Saunders in 1986, the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez in 1989, the missing persons case of Mary Rico-Webber in 1992, the murder of retired school teacher Margaret Yossa in 1994, and the murder of Rachel Pauline Rivera found in the alley of the 600 block of South Coast Highway in 2001.
As each year passes these cases only grow colder, including Rocco Pittro’s murder in Room 8 at the Hill Top Motel. Is the DNA evidence just waiting to be tested? Is there anyone who remembers, or has information to help solve this case and others?
Histories and Mysteries 