Man who infamously raped, murdered high school sophomore with girlfriend dies in prison

A man who, along with his young girlfriend, sexually assaulted and killed a high school sophomore more than 20 years ago, has died in state prison.

Michael Forest Thornton, 68, died Monday at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville . He had been in a hospice facility and his death was deemed natural, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

Thornton had been sentenced to death in the 2001 killing of Michelle Curran, a 16-year-old Las Vegas girl whom he drugged, sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered with his girlfriend and co-conspirator, Janeen Snyder.

Curran was reported missing out of Nevada in April 2001 after she disappeared while walking to school, according to the Las Vegas Sun .

She was found weeks later dead from a bullet to the head, her naked body left in a horse trailer in the town of Rubidoux — now a neighborhood of Jurupa Valley .

According to various reports from the time, Thornton, a successful businessman who operated multiple beauty salons, and his then-wife took Snyder, a friend of their daughter’s, into their home after she ran away from her own.

An abusive sexual relationship eventually developed between Snyder and Thornton, who was more than 23 years older than the 14-year-old girl.

That affair eventually evolved into something even more sinister and culminated with the two allegedly committing several violent acts on other young girls.

“Snyder would lure girls back to hotel rooms where the duo would rape and molest the teens after loading them up with meth,” the Toronto Sun reported.

Curran was the last of their known victims. She had been abducted and “used as a sex slave before being tortured and killed,” according to the Desert Sun , a local paper in the Inland Empire.

Thornton and Snyder were arrested in Rubidoux after they were found trespassing on private property near a bloody scene. They were also found to be in possession of an ID card belonging to Curran, whose body was located by the property owner days later.

The details of their arrest made national headlines and their crimes have since been chronicled in books, true crime podcasts and television investigation series.

In September 2006, both Thornton and Snyder were found guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Curran. Thornton was also convicted of burglary and attempted penetration with a foreign object.

Thornton and Snyder were both sentenced to death; Snyder was one of the few women in California to be put on death row to await execution. The state, however, has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006, and Gavin Newsom placed a formal moratorium on the practice as one of his very first acts as the state’s governor.

After being sentenced, Snyder later admitted to killing a 15-year-old girl who had been missing for several years, according to the Los Angeles Times , although she has not been formally charged.

Jessie Kay Peters of Hermosa Beach disappeared in March 1996 at the age of 14; her mother was an employee at one of Thornton’s beauty salons.

According to an archived article from the Daily Breeze , officials from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office believe Peters was abducted and raped by Thornton and Snyder, who killed her for “sexual gratification,” then dismembered her body and discarded it into the Pacific Ocean.

Thornton and Snyder were also never charged for any of the reported sexual assaults and abductions that happened prior to their arrests, although two of their alleged victims testified during their murder trial.

Snyder, now 45 years old, remains incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Madera County. She is one of 618 condemned inmates in CDCR care.

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