Hollywood Starlet’s Murder and Celebrity Sex Diary: Shocking Findings Unveiled

Hollywood starlet Christa Helm was brutally murdered on a quiet West Hollywood street in the early hours of February 12, 1977.

The B-list movie actress and famed party girl was stabbed 22 times with a butcher knife and attacked with a blunt object, with the sickening assault continuing even as she lay face down in her own blood.

Helm – who bore a striking resemblance to Manson murder victim Sharon Tate – bled out under a car outside 9022 Lloyd Place at 27 years old.

The killer retreated into the shadows that night and has remained there for nearly 50 years.

Amid salacious revelations about the mother-of-one’s personal life – including that she kept a sex diary chronicling escapades with celebrities and politicians, combined with a laundry list of persons of interest – the case bamboozled police and went cold.

No one has been charged with the crime. 

True crime writer and podcast host Jamey DuVall has been investigating the case for a decade and exclusively revealed his discoveries to the Daily Mail.

‘There’s no way this killer did not know Christa’, he said, ‘it wasn’t a simple mugging, they wanted to defile her, mutilate her, destroy her beauty.’ 

A blood-soaked Helm was found lying on her left side with her hand gripped between her thighs, her legs partially under the car, her keys clutched under her.

But her Tommy Boy purse, which was said to contain her infamous diary, was missing and has never been recovered.

The diary supposedly included entries rating alleged conquests including Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger, Joe Namath and Johnny Rivers. She was even once linked to the Shah of Iran. Helm also made audio tapes of her reported flings.

No eyewitnesses to the murder ever came forward.

White Lotus actor Jon Gries, then 19, was staying nearby when he woke up around 1:30am – he heard screaming.

Grabbing a gun, he stepped out of the house, but stopped short of the road where Helm was attacked.

DuVall uncovered that a woman living ‘right across’ from the crime scene heard ‘terrible screaming’, but her view was obscured by shrubs.

Another ‘earwitness’ said they heard a man and woman arguing on the street.

The night before she died, Helm attended a party in Laurel Canyon with her roommate Stephanie.

Helm attempted to contact music agent Sandy Smith – whose house she was found dead outside – to join them, but he declined due to being ‘too tired.’

Police at the time said they believed Helm was murdered because she ‘knew too much about some important people’. A recording of a threesome involving Helm and a ‘well-known Hollywood star’ emerged in 2006. 

DuVall confirmed Helm was writing a tell-all memoir at the time of her death – the transcripts of which were stolen from her friend’s house the night of the murder. 

Detectives initially linked the murder to the stabbing of Rebel Without a Cause icon Sal Mineo, which took place in the same neighborhood exactly one year earlier. DuVall believes this focus allowed the real killer to slip away.

Lionel Ray Williams was convicted of Mineo’s murder and was never questioned in Helm’s case.

On the same night Helm died, sex worker Sheila Green, 22, was stabbed and decapitated 5 miles away off Mulholland Drive.

DuVall’s research uncovered that police in 1977 did believe Helm and Green’s cases were committed by the same perpetrator – although there is no evidence the pair knew each other.

In life, Helm had a knack for courting the press, but her murder didn’t garner much attention. 

After undergoing plastic surgery, including breast implants, the 5-foot-9-inch Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native was described as ‘so perfect, every man wanted her and girl was jealous of her’.

Born Sandra Lynn Wohlfeil, Helm’s parents divorced when she was a young child.

She became pregnant at 17 by a 34-year-old karate school teacher. They got married, but a day after the ceremony, he left and never saw her again. He also never met their daughter, Nicole.

Determined to be a movie star, Helm moved to New York City and then changed her name.

Helm left her daughter in the care of a family friend in Vermont – she planned to reunite with Nicole full-time when she was 10. Helm died just months before this milestone.

The actress starred in 1973 flop Let’s Go For Broke before moving to Los Angeles in 1975. Small roles in Starsky & Hutch and Wonder Woman followed in 1976, but her career stalled.

Days before her murder, Helm had made plans to return to Wisconsin to be with her daughter.

In 1977, DNA testing was a pipe dream, but 29 years later, it was a reality. In 2006, cold case investigators re-opened the case.

Helm’s clipped fingernails had been preserved with tissue underneath them. Shockingly, the DNA was that of an unidentified female.

Helm’s lover Patti Collins vanished in the aftermath of the murder and has never been located. 

The pair began a sexual relationship when they moved in together in 1975 – however, Helm denied she was a lesbian and was still actively dating men.

‘Patti Collins didn’t like that Christa was not that into her and preferred men,’ DuVall surmised. ‘They had arguments and she was jealous. Christa got her sacked.’

The DNA has never been matched to any known female.

Drug dealer Rudy Mazella became a person of interest after his friend claimed he had confessed to murdering Helm. Cold case investigators said Mazella was ‘violent’ and known to ‘carry guns and knives’.

Mazella denied any involvement when he was brought in for questioning and he died before the case was reopened. 

David Stein has emerged as DuVall’s main focus.

Stein, once dubbed ‘the second greatest pimp in NYC’, is believed to have crossed paths with Helm when she moved in with financier Bernie Cornfeld.

Stein – who had previously been arrested for imprisoning and assaulting a Playboy playmate in 1972 – allegedly procured women for Cornfeld.

DuVall believes Helm was escorting, and said of Stein: ‘He was known as a male madam. He was using women to dig up information on wealthy clients. Christa could have known too much.’ 

In late 1976, Helm sent a friend an alarming postcard that read: ‘I’m in over my head, and I might need to disappear for a while. If anything happens to me, please take care of Nicole.’

Investigators never located Stein, and he died in 2021.

Sopranos star Tony Sirico was also drawn into the investigation amid rumors he had taken ‘furs and tapes’ from Helm’s apartment on the night of her murder. Sirico – who died in 2022 – denied even knowing her.

Keen to dispel claims Helm ‘played with fire’, DuVall, who is penning a book on the case, said, ‘She had limited prospects, she had that fake it ’til you make it attitude, she became that role.

‘She was a beautiful, generous soul with a dream. But she was swept up in a cyclone of famous people and danger.’

DuVall is compelling police for access to the case files which could reveal the whereabouts of the blue jumpsuit Helm was murdered in.

‘There is a strong chance that some form of justice can be reached in Christa’s case. Whether they will pay the price and are still alive is a different matter…’ DuVall said.

‘Her daughter has a right to know who did this to her mother. 

‘It irritates the s**t out of me that someone got away with this, the idea the answer is right there, one conversation away, one lead away…

‘Someone out there knows what happened.’

If you have information on this case, please contact the homicide cold case unit at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at 323-890-5500. 

If you have a tip in the case visit www.whokilledchristahelm.com/submitatip.