Five years after the rapes and stabbing murders of a 15-year-old girl and her 20-year-old friend, nerves remain raw in this military town in the Mojave Desert.
There's been no trial yet for the Marine who was charged in the crimes.While there was criticism of the government's response to charges that two Marines raped a girl on Okinawa, that case moved along relatively quickly compared to this one. And that disturbs some townspeople and the mother of the slain teenager.
Others are loyal defenders of the nearby Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, which has strong economic ties to the town.
"Oh, boy, this place is in an uproar," said resident Nancy Turner, a friend of the teenage victim's mother, Debie McMasters. "Debie stood up to a lot of people in this town, and they didn't like it."
McMasters' daughter, Mandi Scott, and Mandi's friend Rosalie Ortega were each stabbed more than 30 times in Ortega's apartment. Their bodies were found Aug. 1, 1991.
Several days later, authorities arrested 34-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Valentine Underwood, who was charged with rape and murder in civilian court. He has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bail in Barstow, a two-hour drive across the desert.
His trial has been delayed by pretrial wrangling, and yet another round of hearings is set for this week.
McMasters, who at the time of the killings tended bar at a club called Oasis, said "finding out he was a Marine upset me very much."
"Twentynine Palms is a very small community. There isn't really a lot for the kids to do. For teenagers, there's nothing. And they are preyed upon by Marines," said McMasters.
She noted that while a crowd turned out for Mandi's memorial service, not a single Marine was there in uniform. By contrast, she said, Underwood's preliminary hearing drew a sergeant, a lieutenant and a major.
McMasters contrasts that with the international outcry that followed the abduction and rape of a girl in Okinawa.
Less than two weeks after that 1995 crime, U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale and the commander of U.S. forces in Japan, Lt. Gen. Richard B. Myers, apologized for the rape. Two Marines and a Navy seaman were convicted in Japanese court and sentenced to prison.
"They (Marines) haven't said one word to me - no condolences, no sympathy, no nothing," McMasters said. "I'm hurt and I'm angry."
A base spokesman, Capt. Phillip Thompson, said the Marines do feel for McMasters but are in a difficult position; they can't apologize for an act that no jury has said a Marine has committed.
"This is still a country where you're innocent until proven guilty," Thompson said.
The Okinawa rape briefly drew attention to the 1991 murders, yet the local case had mostly been set aside in local conversation.
Then came an article about the murders last month in Los Angeles Magazine.
The story described Twentynine Palms as "a way station for late-20th century blackguards and exiles, refugees and parolees, high school dropouts."
The local paper, The Desert Trail, complained in an editorial that the article was "a vicious piece of writing."
McMasters, who has since moved to the Chicago area, said many people in Twentynine Palms have turned their backs on her, concerned about keeping the town and the base on good terms and protecting the desert tourist trade.
Some residents agree with her.
"It infuriates me," said Jeannine Smith, a friend of McMasters. "How many times does it have to happen? How many rapes, how many murders, before this stops?"
The local police blotter is full of complaints against Marines, including recent charges that one of them killed a cab driver.
Still, many in town insist that any hostility toward the Marines comes from a small minority. They note that Marines returning from the gulf war were greeted by thousands of cheering residents and a desert decorated with yellow ribbons.
Teddy Linton, a retired Marine who lives in Twentynine Palms, said people like McMasters are unfairly criticizing the entire Marine Corps for a crime allegedly committed by just one soldier.
"I see why Debie left town, saying things like that," said Linton. "Why didn't she blame the Marine Corps when she was tending bar and the Marines were leaving her $1 tips?"