John William Kelley was born on March 9, 1963, in Placerville, California.

On December 6, 1986, Annette Kulovitz, a 16-year-old girl, was picked up by John William Kelley after she attended a party in Boulder Creek. Kelley drove her to his house in Ben Lomond. There, he raped, sodomized, and strangled Annette to death. To dispose of her body, he dumped it on an embankment along the Skyline Boulevard. A tourist later discovered her body, but police initially believed she had died from a drug overdose, leading to a cold case due to a lack of suspects.

On August 14, 1988, Kelley encountered married couple Douglas and Rozina Anderson while they were camping at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. He forcefully tried to get them to exit their van. When they opened the doors, he ordered Douglas to strip naked and then shot him three times. Afterward, he raped Rozina and shot her as well before leaving the scene. The couple's dog was found tied outside their van, and a tourist later reported the incident when they noticed the vehicle's damage and smell. Like the earlier case, this double murder also went cold due to no leads or suspects.

In 2012, DNA evidence linked Kelley to the murder of Annette Thur. After being interviewed by the police, he was arrested and charged with her murder. During the trial, he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. While in prison, Kelley confessed to the murders of Douglas and Rozina Anderson, giving specific details that only the killer would know. He was then extradited to Del Norte County and received two more life sentences for those murders. Kelley is currently serving his sentences at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.