But I had to keep it tight so I tried to convey the crime and its horror as succinctly as possible. Was he ready to talk? They had to be named first it should be a shock to the conscience that women were vanishing like this and someone was getting away with it. Ackroyd wasnt sure. From the outside, Ackroyd seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady job and married a woman with a couple of young kids. I have to go. We had multiple victims across a large swath of rural Oregon and crimes that covered a long period of time. There were 300 people there and Marlene Gabrielsen came. Would he give up the body? Sheila Swanson was 19 and from nearby Lebanon. Their clothes were spattered with so much blood that she got rid of Becks jeans and shirt. And Harmon hadn't uncovered any physical evidence linking Ackroyd to Rachanda's disappearance. The cause: heart disease. Its ugly to describe and imagine these killings. She thought of how Kaye must have felt, the air so cold she could see her breath. Hed stopped by a half-dozen times since Kaye had gone missing. Yes! I listened to them all, some multiple times. The Turners lived in Eugene, where Kaye, 35, had worked at Planned Parenthood and then as a manager at a local public health agency. This scene has a cinematic quality cops gathering on an empty road days before Christmas reenacting an abduction using a woman deputy and then deciding to give the story their own happy ending. Actually, the beginning and the ending were the most rewritten parts of the series, as we knew they would be. Her head slammed into the door frame. At one point, Kelley Benham French was a consultant on the series. Rachanda declined, citing the chores her mother expected her to finish, he said. I wanted the reader to grasp the precarious position these women were at the time they disappeared. Were other approaches considered? Like Mark Foster, one of the cops who worked on the Kaye Turner investigation. How do we create a person's profile? Covering thought leadership in journalism, 2023 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, It was pure serendipity. I did not do nothing. A thought skittered This United States biographical article related to crime is a stub. Marlene slowly stood, wearing only her T-shirt and jacket. Bottomly teamed up Crombie with Killen and Nakamura to run the mystery to ground. The men spent hours talking to Ackroyd. Would is a conditional verb indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation. But what if the case turned on that clue? Died 20 JAN 1929. And so the case reached a quiet end in the fall of 2013. It was a sensational crime that remains unsolved. He picked her up 41 years ago at a campground outside Sisters, Oregon. View John Ackroyd results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The family lived at the state highway division compound at Santiam Junction, where U.S. 20 and Oregon 22 meet. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. Hanna told police hed seen both the highway worker and the runner in Camp Sherman that morning. But the work of discovery keeps you going as well as the realization (maybe anxiety) that you must make a fair and supportable case and do justice to the time involved, the expense and most of all, the material. Explore genealogy for John Ackroyd born 1839 Halifax, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom died 1921 Temuka, South Canterbury, New Zealand including father + descendants + more in the free family tree community. I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. The two investigators crowded Bensons office with more whiteboards, scribbling fine points from each case. Kaye had been raped and shot, Beck told Pam. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Dave, Beth and I spent a lot of time deep in the woods where these women were assaulted, killed and abandoned. So while I did the interviews, reporting and wrote the stories, their work helped elevate the project into something pretty special. I thought about it, but I never done it.. Where is she? Linda asked Ackroyd as darkness enveloped the highway compound. Though investigators were certain he was behind her disappearance, they couldnt prove it. That friend was Roger Dale Beck. Our ride is here, Karen told her friend. And Harmon hadnt uncovered any physical evidence linking Ackroyd to Rachandas disappearance. It seems remarkable in hindsight that he managed to elude police despite such compelling circumstantial evidence and his rape a year earlier of another woman off Highway 20. How odd, they thought. Police at one point speculated that Melissas alleged theft of glassware from a local meth cook might have gotten them killed. For now, I just want the reader to know something triggered their interest in what happened to Marlene and leave it at that. At 17, Melissa was tough-talking and independent. The police didnt believe Gabrielsens accusation at the time and her case, which bookends the series, is an example of justice long overdue in the #MeToo era. A Forest Service rangers account of seeing Ackroyd that day in a sno-park near Santiam Junction hours later than Ackroyd claimed blew a hole in the highway workers alibi. This is a woman who has suffered in silence, alone, for decades, and here she was getting this kind of delayed justice. I spent considerable time trying to answer this very question. He was convicted of a sex crime in Minnesota, served seven months in prison, and moved to California. I asked her about his clothing. A couple of weeks later, Marlene sat in the back of an unmarked police car as two officers drove her to the lie detector test. The men were told to drop it. Yet neither man confessed to police. He was the main suspect, but the case had vanished from local news reports even though her disappearance triggered one of the largest search efforts in the countys history. On one of our reporting trips along Highway 20, I spent the ride focused on the road, what he would have seen from his truck. The subject matter is horrific. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? I have the audio of this conversation. Load the dishwasher. He hadnt told his wife the full story of Rachandas life and how he remained tormented that he hadnt hugged his kid sister the last time he saw her. Hooper's aunt in Wisconsin called him to share the details of the gruesome finds inside Gein's house, some of which he . And this guy basically got away with it.. Ackroyd led investigators into the brush, about a half-mile off the road where Kaye had gone running the previous winter. The police detective who originally investigated the rape was long dead, so we couldnt ask him. Investigators suspected the rivet a quick fix used in field repairs had fallen out of the pocket of her attacker. The process compounded his grief. Guilty. The teens had managed to build a sordid social circle in their young lives, so investigators had plenty of violent men to consider. Now, a woman had gone missing, triggering a massive search that made headlines clear to Portland: Husband fears kidnap: Turner searchers losing hope, one read in The Oregonian four days later. Why? We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. They led her into a small room with a desk. Secondary trauma from reporting stories like this is real. Prosecutors didn't have a body. It moved around a bit until it landed here. The larger person had dragged the smaller person away. Why? I t was the last time any cop talked to Ackroyd. Some of the most important sources never appear in the print component of this project. We talked to grieving loved ones. Why? But those relationships shifted over time. Highway worker after highway worker said they werent there that night, they couldnt vouch that it had happened. Then a confession by a convicted murderer sidetracked detectives before they determined he was lying. George was born on March 29 1875, in East Bierley, Yorkshire. Even today parts of the road are so narrow and quiet the highway has the feel of a country lane. I had to rely on their description of what he said. June 12, 2022 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 Tagged: The Oregonian. Melissas mother died, too. Then Rachanda Pickle, Ackroyds 13-year-old stepdaughter, disappeared. My editors advised me at one point to look for ways to mix things up with more complex sentences and longer graphs. Why did you go to this trouble? I knew from the time Id spent with her that shes a strong person, and Day 1 of this series didnt capture that. Later that night, Marlene and her husband argued when he said he wanted to head off with a couple of friends. I read. From the outside, Ackroyd seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady job and married a woman with a couple of young kids. Beautiful scenery but what this man did was not beautiful in any sense. That may have also played a role in their response. Great details, especially the belt. Over time, Ackroyd added incriminating details to his account. Is that what youre saying? Do investigators believe Ackroyd was responsible for these unsolved deaths? Christine and Kim discuss the excellent documenatry--"Ghosts of Highway 20" regarding John Arthur Ackroyd, a state highway worker who had access to roam the state. Of course they remembered. The series linked Melissa and Sheilas disappearances to Ackroyd for the first time. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? Why did you decide to use Benson and Snow as a vehicle to transmit all this background? But these are long stories and I didnt want to lose readers, so it was a question of using scenes and descriptions that were most telling. They wrote down his habit of taking time off around the disappearances, as hed done with Kaye and Rachanda. She talked about her plans to run in Camp Sherman, inviting a friend to join her that morning. It made sense to make Highway 20 a central theme and to tell the story chronologically, using the highway as a guide. A report from the trial in the Bend (OR) Bulletin. The television was on. Faryion Wardrip. The Oregonian has prepared a complete dossier on the crimes of John ACKROYD. A father himself now, Byron gets a catch in his voice when he talks about it. This is a messy story that jumps around in time. Besides the journalism awards, what was the reaction? Rachanda's stepfather, John Arthur Ackroyd, is the last person known to have seen her. Did you and your colleagues ever worry whether readers would care about cases that happened so many years before?