by Gary C. King
The body was mostly skeletonized and was not intact. They could see evidence of animal chewing, as well as insect holes over the leathery skin of the chest. Even though it was in such a decomposed state, they could also make out stab wounds in the chest, located left of the midline.
In the meantime, medical examiners Lewman and Gunson examined Body #2. Like the first body, there was mummification, active decomposition, and putrefactive odor. Also like the first, Body #2 had female characteristics. Long, curly, blondish brown hair lay on the ground surrounding the skull. The teeth were intact except for the left central incisor, which had fallen out and was found on the ground next to the skull. The teeth struck Lewman as being extraordinarily straight.
Lewman noted a tattoo in the left flank region, and he could make out the word "Bitch" among others. He also noted a tattoo on the left shoulder. When he and Gunson turned the body over to place it in a body bag, they found the severed feet beneath it. Each had been sawed or cut through about three inches above the distal tibia and fibula, and there were multiple saw or cut marks in each tibia. Although there was no way to tell for certain, Lewman had no reason to believe that either of the victims were dead when the sawing or cutting of their feet occurred. Whoever had performed this carnage had done so to inflict intense physical pain upon his victims and had enjoyed watching their blood flow freely. There was no doubt that he was one sadistic sonofabitch.
Before the day was over, it was brought to Turner's attention that the Sheriff's Department's search and rescue explorers had found two shoelaces in separate locations. Each had been looped and knotted at the ends, as if they had been used for restraints. When Turner examined them, he saw immediately that they were just like the ones found at the scene of Jenny Smith's murder.
Detective Jim Strovink caught the assignment to interview Everett Banyard about his discovery of Body #1, and to determine whether or not he had anything else of significance to offer the investigators.
"Why was it that you were in that area on that particular date?" asked Strovink.
"Well, it's like I said before," responded Banyard. "I was gonna do a little deer hunting that evening before dark. That's when I parked in that area and discovered that body."
"Have you hunted in that area in the past?"
"Oh, yeah. Quite a few times. I've walked through there probably hundreds of times over the years. My daughters rode through there on horseback quite a bit, and it was just kind of a main trail to the river from our house."
"Had you been there this summer at all?"
"Off and on—yeah." Banyard explained that he thought he had smelled a slight odor on earlier trips to the location, but concluded that somebody had likely dumped a dead dog or garbage up there. He said that was a common practice among residents.
"Did you ever notice anyone unusual in that area?" asked Strovink.
"Well, there's quite a few people that come in there. One time I pulled in and stopped at the bottom of the road—before deer season opened—and was gonna walk up and scout around. That would have been in late July or early August."
"What did you notice on this particular occasion?" pushed Strovink.
"There was a small blue Datsun pickup. It came slowly by the bottom there. The driver stopped just down the road."
"Was the driver alone in the vehicle?"
"Yeah, he was alone."
"And it was a male subject?"
"Yeah, he was a male. He didn't look like a great big guy, you know. That's about all I can say because he was settin' down in the pickup when he went by."
"Would you recognize the driver of that vehicle if you saw him again?"
"No, I couldn't even begin to give you a description."
"What did he do?"
"He stopped, just down the road. I saw some pigeons take off, and I thought he released some homing pigeons—I didn't think nothing about it."
It was more likely, reasoned Strovink, that the man in the blue Datsun had frightened a flock of birds when he either walked in or tossed something into the brush.
Chapter 14
On Thursday, September 3, after news about the discovery of the Molalla forest bodies broke publicly, John Turner began coordinating the missing persons reports that began to flow into the sheriff's office from various other agencies. He didn't know it yet, but he and his colleagues would fill not less than half a dozen three-ring binders, each more than three inches thick, with reports concerning missing females from throughout the Northwest. He would fill more than that with tip sheets about the case, reports concerning suspicious odors in the Molalla forest area, suspicious individuals, clothing discoveries, even calls from prostitutes who wanted to help. All in all, Turner's case file alone would grow to thirty-five such volumes that would hold thousands of pages.
While Turner was fielding the calls, Mike Machado returned to the forest site, where the search for more bodies and additional evidence continued. Similarly, Dr. Lewman and Dr. Gunson continued to examine the corpses and secure them in body bags for eventual transport to the morgue in Portland. Machado was observing the work of an entomologist who was collecting bugs from the site, when he was called to the command post about a truck driver, Mike Travis, who was waiting at the entrance of the logging spur road. Travis, he was informed, had information about a girl he had picked up a couple of months earlier.
Travis explained that he had been driving his log truck at a location about four miles from the crime scene in July, a few days after Independence Day. He said the girl he had picked up had jumped out of a small blue Datsun pickup traveling in front of him after—the girl had told him—the pickup's driver had threatened to kill her. After he picked up the girl, who had been injured from the jump, Travis said he saw the pickup again but the driver had managed to elude him. Machado thanked Travis for his help, then drove to the Molalla Police Department, where he telephoned Turner. It was, by then, 4:30 P.M.
As Machado started to explain what he had learned from Travis, Turner interrupted him. The incident rang a bell, said Turner, and had done so before, while he was investigating Jenny Smith's murder. He had already read the report, taken by a road deputy, he said, and found it as he spoke. It involved a woman by the name of Heather Brown, who had been picked up on Union Avenue in Portland. Heather's address was on the report, and the two detectives agreed to meet in Oregon City and drive to her home together that evening.
During the drive to Portland, Machado told Turner about a call he had received earlier from a man named Paul Samarin concerning information about Dayton Rogers and the Molalla forest case. Samarin had told Machado that he'd heard about the bodies in the Molalla forest and that his wife had shown him a map of the area that had appeared in the Statesmen Journal, a Salem newspaper. When he looked at the map, Samarin said he realized that he had been fishing in that same area with Dayton. Samarin said that the location was Dayton's favorite spot. The detectives considered it unusual that anyone would call in with information that connected Dayton to the forest location when Dayton's name hadn't been mentioned publicly yet in connection with the case.
It was 7:30 P.M. when they arrived at 103 Northeast Sacramento Street in Portland. The house, situated on the northeast corner of Sacramento Street and Rodney Avenue, was boarded up. Although it looked like no one lived there, lights had been left burning on the front and back porches. While Machado knocked at the front door, Turned went to the back door. Neither, however, got an answer.
Before leaving the city. Turner and Machado enlisted the help of the Portland Police Bureau to find Heather Brown. When they ran her rap sheet they learned that she was a prostitute, as Turner had suspected when he first read the report in July. They also obtained her mug shot, along with a promise that the Portland Police Bureau would contact them if they located Heather.
Now that they had Heather's mug shot, Turner telephoned Mike Travis from Portland. He had a few questions he wanted to ask him, and wanted to know if it was okay to drop in on him even t
hough it was getting late. Although he had been asleep, Travis said he didn't mind. It was about 9:45 P.M. when Turner and Machado arrived at Travis's apartment in Molalla.
"Yes, that's her," said Travis when he saw Heather's photo. "That's the girl I picked up on the logging road."
Turner then showed Travis a photo display of six men, similar to the one he had been using in the Jenny Smith case. Travis looked carefully at the display.
"No, I don't think it's any of them," he said, adding that he hadn't obtained a very good look at the driver. "I'm pretty sure that the driver of the pickup is not there." However, he kept looking at photo number three in the upper right-hand corner, the one of Dayton Leroy Rogers. But he kept shaking his head. "No, I can't swear to it."
Turner took out some photos of Dayton's pickup.
"That sure looks like his pickup. That's the color of the pickup I saw. I can't swear on the license plate, but it was a real nice pickup like this one. That's the color, yeah."
Travis continued to stare at the photo display of possible suspects, his gaze focused on photo number three.
"I can tell you which ones it isn't," he finally said. He pointed to photos one, two, four, and five, but continued to stare at photo three. "I just can't swear to it."
It was 10:30 P.M. when Turner arrived back at his office. He had planned to call it a day and go home, but his phone began ringing as he walked into his cubicle. Lisa Daniels* was on the other end of the line, and she told him she had some information about a frightening experience she'd had with Dayton Leroy Rogers. When Turner heard Rogers's name, he suddenly became very interested and got his second wind. Sleep would have to wait.
Although Dayton hadn't been named publicly as a suspect in the Molalla forest murders, Lisa had heard of his alleged involvement in Jenny Smith's murder and the extreme violence associated with it, and had put two and two together. She didn't remember the exact date, she said, but she had met Dayton in 1984 on Highway 99E in Woodburn. She was walking toward the town of Hubbard about midafternoon one day when a pickup approached her from behind. The driver pulled up next to her and his eyes moved up and down her body. He drove a few feet ahead of her, then stopped.
The driver rolled the window down and said, "You're a beautiful woman." He asked her how she was, what she was doing, where she was going, trying as hard as he could to engage her in small talk. He finally offered her a ride in his pickup and, unafraid, she accepted. Lisa described the pickup as a Nissan, a newer model, brown with gold stripes on the sides.
"Are you sure about the color?" asked Turner.
"Oh, yes. I'm positive."
Lisa described the interior as very clean, with black leather seats. She said Dayton had music playing on the stereo, rock and roll. He drove her to her apartment in Hubbard and asked her what she was doing later that night. When told that she had no plans, he asked her for a date. She asked him if he was married, and he said, "No. It's just me and my cat up in the trailer on the outskirts of Canby." He said that he had just gotten off work at the Coast to Coast store in Woodburn. Lisa agreed to go out with him, and he picked her up at her apartment about 7 P.M. that night.
They left in the same brown pickup, said Lisa, and Dayton was dressed "sharp." He was wearing brand-new jeans, a checkered western-style cowboy shirt that buttoned up the front, and "real fancy" shiny brown cowboy boots with sharp-pointed toes. They stopped at the Woodburn liquor store, where Dayton purchased vodka for mixed drinks.
"Do you recall the brand of vodka?" asked Turner.
"No, but they were in tiny bottles."
"You mean the miniature type, like those served on airlines?"
"Yeah, those kind. There were at least five, maybe more, and he kept them in a sack. Then he stopped at Safeway and bought orange juice."
After leaving Safeway, they headed south on Interstate 5. Their destination was Eugene, a hundred-mile drive from Hubbard. During the drive, Dayton kept placing his hand on her leg, rubbing it. She was wearing slacks, and said that he did not touch her sexually during the drive there. Lisa didn't drink anything on the way to Eugene, but did so after they arrived. She said Dayton took her to a restaurant for dinner, then to a bar for drinks. He seemed to have a pocketful of money and took her to places she considered "swanky."
It was late when they left Eugene. Lisa couldn't recall the precise time, but remembered that before she knew it they were on the outskirts of Molalla. She said they eventually turned onto some logging roads, and she did remember passing water but didn't know if it was a lake, river, or pond.
"As we were driving," said Lisa, "Dayton said he wanted to tie my hands behind my back. At first I thought he was joking. But as we continued driving, he placed his right arm over the back of the passenger seat behind my back. Suddenly he grabbed me with his right hand, forcing me against the passenger door. He managed to grab my hands and get them behind my back while his left hand was still on the steering wheel. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do. He managed to get some rope from behind the seat and was able to make knots with one hand. After he got me tied up, he began saying that he was going to cut my boobs off. I didn't know if he meant it or what."
Lisa explained that she was so frightened that she got under the dashboard on the passenger side and sat on the floorboard. She didn't know how to escape, so she just sat there, terrified.
"He asked me what was the matter," she said. "And I asked him if he was going to cut my boobs off. He then asked me, 'What do you think?' He never said anything else about cutting off my breasts."
They continued driving for a while, but Dayton eventually stopped and untied her hands. He then drove a little farther, then parked. There were other people in the area, parked there like them. She wasn't sure where they were, but believed they might have been at a county park. They definitely were not parked along a street or busy roadway, she said. He forced her to drink some more vodka, two small bottles, straight, and gave her some kind of dope to smoke. He put the cigarette in her mouth. She said she didn't know what kind of dope it was, but it definitely was not marijuana. Lisa became nauseous, as much from the drinking as from the dope, and began vomiting. Just before they left, Dayton threw all of the vodka bottles and orange juice container out of the pickup window, then dropped her off at her apartment at approximately 3 A.M.
"I didn't file a report," she said, "because I was freaked out and paranoid. I didn't know what he'd do if I filed a report.
"I saw him a couple of times after that," she continued. "I went into the Coast to Coast store a couple of times. I still didn't know if he'd been playing a game with me or what. He came over to me in the store and thanked me for going out with him. He said he'd had the best time he'd ever had. I didn't know how to respond. When I asked him about tying me up and the threats, he denied ever doing it. He said he never remembered doing it."
Turner found Lisa's story interesting, to say the least. Moreover, he was amazed that two calls had come in during the same day tying Dayton Rogers to the Molalla forest, especially since he hadn't yet named Dayton as a suspect publicly. The only thing Lisa told him that hadn't fit was the color of Dayton's truck, which she had said was brown. But then again, maybe it did fit, reflected Turner. The incident with Lisa had occurred in 1984, and Dayton's light-blue Nissan was a 1985 model. Since Lisa hadn't been able to remember the date or even the month, it was possible that her date with Dayton had occurred before the 1985 models went on sale in late 1984. Dayton had been driving a different vehicle.
Chapter 15
Autopsies were conducted by Dr. Larry V. Lewman and began late Friday afternoon, September 4, at the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office in Portland. Detectives Turner and Machado were present, as was Detective Matt Haney, sent down to Portland from the Green River Task Force in Seattle to make comparisons between their case and Clackamas County's case and determine, if possible, whether they were related.
Each corpse was photographed and fluoroscoped prior to autopsy. Later, fo
llowing the autopsies, the hands of each corpse would be removed and sent to Lieutenant Colleen Aas of the Oregon State Police Identification Bureau, Latent Print Division, in Salem. Lieutenant Aas would review the hands and then begin processing them for identifiable fingerprints that could, the detectives hoped, identify the victims if their prints were on file anywhere.
The autopsies revealed that Body #1 was a Caucasian female, approximately five feet two inches tall, teens to early twenties, reddish brown hair. Lewman noted that the victim had previous surgery in the pelvic and hip regions and that the distal tibia, where the left foot had previously been cut off, had been incised or sawed through about eighty percent of its depth, the remainder broken. Tool marks were clearly delineated, and he was certain that they hadn't been caused by animal chewing. He also found perforating defects in the posterior trunk, varying in size from one-quarter to five-eighths inches, the shape of which were generally round to elliptical. He characterized the defects as probable stab wounds.
Body #2 was also a Caucasian female, likely in her early twenties at time of death, about five feet six inches tall, with long, somewhat curly brown to reddish brown hair. Lewman observed a series of multiple incised wounds, possibly saw marks but definitely some kind of tool marks, on the posterior lateral surface of the left femur about two inches above the condyles, the smooth surface area at the end of a bone comprising part of the joint. Both feet had been cut or sawed off about six and a half inches above the heels. Lewman noted and retrieved several minute fragments of a green glasslike substance from the victim's hair, which he deposited into an evidence container for the crime lab to later examine.
The corpse was turned over, where Lewman removed a patch of flesh displaying a tattoo from the left buttock or flank region. The flesh was placed in water to enhance the detail, and the word "Harley" was clearly visible, as was a Harley Davidson motorcycle emblem. Under closer observation he could see that the tattoo read: "Biker Harley Davidson Bitch." There was another tattoo near the left posterior shoulder, an elaborate drawing of a Pegasus or unicorn.
