He saw another highway worker driving through Camp Sherman that morning. As investigators scoured the woods for clues, a state police trooper rested against a tree. This is also the story of John Ackroyd, also know as The Highway 20 Killer. Narrative is not typically what Ive done. He recalled the blood, Ackroyds unlikely story and the odd timing. Cart He was anxious and beaded with sweat even though the afternoon heat had faded. What are the chances that two serial killers were active during the same time and place? It seems clear that for many of those involved, including most importantly the victims and their families, the system (and to a larger extent society) failed them. We were smacked by paddles and a lot of people who are are like, Oh big deal, a paddle. No, there was paddles that were designed with holes drilled in them and stuff and they would brag about it helps cuts through the air and you get a harder spanking. Ackroyd was very predominant in discipline. [1][2] They lived at Santiam Junction, a state highway division compound at Oregon 22 and U.S. Highway 20. She always made the project a priority and didnt make me feel like, Oh, God, Im not contributing or my colleagues are having to pick up the slack. A spare style is my natural tendency. He said he returned home to find his stepdaughter under a blanket on the couch. Kayes remains sat forgotten in the Jefferson County Courthouse until three years ago when court staff came across them. Most nights, the pair could be found at Sharis in Lebanon, where teens and adults gathered to talk on CB radios and drink coffee. And, most significantly, the teens friends confirmed what investigators had long suspected: Ackroyd had been sexually abusing the girl before she vanished. An examiner asked a series of questions: Did she tell the truth about being raped? For instance, Ackroyd told police he drove to his mothers house after raping Marlene. He read about how Ackroyd had been with an old hunting buddy on the morning of Kayes killing. He was drawn to Melissa and Sheila, making a point to chat them up. Then he started swinging at her with his hand.. 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. One of the best investigative reporters in the state had written episodically about it, but nobody had put it all together. Who was this guy and what made him tick? This let us quickly introduce the five women we write about but also put them first in the mind of the reader. State (s) Oregon. No one listened all those years ago. She introduced the women to him and they climbed in. Buy John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton at Mighty Ape Australia. We had multiple victims across a large swath of rural Oregon and crimes that covered a long period of time. Had police believed her, none of the subsequent murders committed by Ackroyd would likely have occurred. Sense of smell is so evocative, yet writers rarely take advantage of its power. Word that Ackroyds stepdaughter had vanished spread quickly to neighboring Jefferson County, where Kaye Turner had been killed more than a decade earlier. Google says its about a half-hour to Sisters, the nearest town where the family would have bought groceries. Again, the investigator playing Ackroyd tried to grab the woman, only this time she wrestled the gun from his grip and pretended to fire a single fatal shot to his heart. An acquaintance told a detective how he once watched in horror as Ackroyd, then a young man, hacked up puppies using a machete, saying the dogs were his and nobody else could have them. A grand jury would hear the case. The memory of an infamous crime, one year earlier, was still fresh in central Oregon. Raised in southern Oregon, she was an only child who remained close to her parents and had recently returned from a visit. Showing : Public Libraries K-12 Schools Library Name Distance. My editors, Therese Bottomly and Margaret Haberman, told me over and over to think about scenes and to identify cliffhangers. So I shifted to the women he encountered. This time, he drove them up a logging road and into the woods. These are heartbreaking stories of isolation., We asked Crombie to tell us about the process of producing the project, and the emotional toll it took, and then to help us annotate the reporting and writing of Ghosts of Highway 20.. She invited us in and we waited for Noel to return from running an errand. I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. The cause: heart disease. Ran into a deer, Ackroyd said. Those footnotes helped me sleep at night. It moved around a bit until it landed here. Sometimes they would drive away and turn back to get her. The cops cheered. When the family returned to Sweet Home later that week, Melissa wasnt there. Her husband was abusive and she drifted from Ackroyd. Actually, the beginning and the ending were the most rewritten parts of the series, as we knew they would be. A dozen or so work crews called the junction home. At 17, Melissa was tough-talking and independent. Where is she? Linda asked Ackroyd as darkness enveloped the highway compound. . Even with the verdict, investigators would never really know what unfolded the morning Kaye died. Was it difficult to have to summarize so much of the story when your reporting had turned up more than enough details to dramatize the action? They ran away from home with plans to make it to California. By now, investigators knew who they were dealing with. Why the shift? Hed planned to fix snowplows but decided to take the day off after learning parts hadnt arrived, a claim that baffled his supervisor, who said there was plenty of work to keep Ackroyd busy. Pretty much all the details of the attacks and deaths are sickening in the series. There was a tremendous amount of secrecy. Margaret (Haberman) agreed and suggested that we pare them down to a manageable number for publication. In 1992 he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. It is a very convoluted story with a blizzard of facts, dates, people, incidents, etc. The deputy ran at a steady pace, the thrum of the truck approaching her from behind. He knew how to navigate the hills and hairpin turns during winter, when fierce storms swept through the Cascades. The details surrounding the assault are terrifying enough. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. One of the victims, Terri Jentz, wrote a book about what happened and her search for her assailant. That was something that kept me up at night, having to describe this landscape, these small towns, how to breathe life into people who died a long time ago, these investigations that were very old. Among the files were details from grand jury testimony, which included precise accounts of Kayes state of mind and the days and hours before and after her disappearance. 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. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. A few days later, I received a handwritten letter from Noel. Detectives wondered if he took a chance to kill again before his arrest. Constant references make Highway 20 a character in its own right? Her father, Richard Sanders, kept her jewelry box, which looked like a miniature china cabinet, under a counter in the old trailer where he lived outside Sweet Home. That late summer day, Ackroyd headed straight for Weston. Two of the victims brothers have quietly suffered for years. Marlene put them on, holding tight to the waist to keep them from slipping off. The next day, Hanlon hopped in a car with a Jefferson County deputy for a briefing on the search for Rachanda. The Oregonian newspaper and others have alleged that Ackroyd was involved in the murder of several more women. I read. Marlene slowly stood, wearing only her T-shirt and jacket. And Bill Hanlon, the prosecutor who helped put Ackroyd away. Like Kayes watch and her hair in the birds nest, this Fireball detail is one I knew I would use. Shed gone around town hanging missing posters but hadnt called police. Kayes killing serves as the cliffhanger at the end of Day 1. Her Timex wristwatch read about 8:15 a.m. Libby; Sora; Kanopy; Help . The reports dont shed light on why they doubted her. This is a such a powerful, almost poetic detail. How much was revision involved in accomplishing this? Something bad happened to her. . We had a lot of discussion about the ending. Their final call in the spring of 1977 came from a pay phone in Lebanon. She denies that he beat her kids. You were here with her.. Seemed like the most hopeful note on which to end a series that didnt offer much light. They found her lower jawbone and yellow shorts. They show similarities with the other attacks off the highway in the woods, restraints or some sort of overpowering, abuse and then stashing the womens bodies out of the way, leaving them for the elements and animals to destroy. Ackroyd heaved his body out of the chair. This time you dramatize the action instead of summarizing it. I had his work, schooling and military records. Its not a transcript. Kayes final hours remained a mystery. Among the files were details from grand jury testimony, which included precise accounts of Kayes state of mind and the days and hours before and after her disappearance. It provided readers with a sense of place but also helped propel the story along. She rode her bike in the lane just outside the door and took a bus to grade school in Sweet Home. She was alone with Ackroyd, a big man who reeked of sweat and freshly cut wood. I knew all along I wanted to make a passing reference to this crime because it was such a horrible act that touched on some of the same themes as Ackroyds crimes. She told them how Ackroyd had once offered the young women a ride. Read Full Profile. After one year, the couple divorced, but they continued to live together with Linda's children. It is . Most of your sentences are short and simple; subject-verb-object, short sentences, short paragraphs. We felt and processed their profound grief. They located the woman who had introduced Melissa and Sheila to Ackroyd. Why did Pam Ramirez lie when first interviewed by the cops? Then 29, Ackroyd had worked for the highway department for nearly a year. Laront remembered the night when a bloodied Ackroyd came into the shop. is there quicksand in hawaii. Recently read an excellent series by the Oregonian, "Ghosts of Highway 20" on suspected serial killer John Arthur Ackroyd, who was active in Oregon from the late 1970s, operating on a remote stretch of US Highway 20 between Bend and Newport, where he was employed by the State Highway Department. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. But those relationships shifted over time. Dave listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. And then there was Ackroyds eerie talk of hunting. Why the shift? Snow worked the phones, digging up numbers for highway workers, many of them long retired. He had done all his talking to investigators during hours of interrogations after Kaye vanished. Later, the men told her that theyd mistaken Kaye for a deer and fatally shot her. Then he left for home. Melissa and Sheila joined a list of girls last heard from or seen late at night in this coastal community. I have a baby thats not even a year old, she pleaded. This time you dramatize the action instead of summarizing it. The project was a true collaboration. How did you locate her? I had to gut him out.. They simply felt they had enough. Even today parts of the road are so narrow and quiet the highway has the feel of a country lane. The process compounded his grief. Linda Monville left Oregon twenty-six years ago and now lives in San Bernardino, California, where she remarried and built a new life after her daughter, Rachanda Pickle, disappeared from the Department of Transportation compound where they lived together with Linda's third husband, John Ackroyd. She lives in Hillsboro with her husband. Interviews with Rachanda Pickles brother, Byron, and one of her childhood friends. The style of the series is elliptical in that it leaves out information, such as dialogue, names of source and other details. Reporting on this series was emotionally grueling. He picked her up 41 years ago at a campground outside Sisters, Oregon. She asked if she could sleep over. He said he came home during a break from work and asked Rachanda if she wanted to go for a ride with him. Kaye Turner's killing became a faded memory. Also, Ackroyd was a local guy whose mother worked at the police department as an office worker. I wanted him to know that the reporting was continuing and that a story would likely appear sometime in the coming months. It took weeks the woman had changed her name since the early 1990s but she remembered the men and their names. Word reached police in Lebanon, Sheilas hometown, that she, too, hadnt shown up. I wanted to show that at this point Ackroyd was a very sick man. Sandy Turner, Noels wife, answered and greeted us warmly. He had raped a young woman, led detectives to a runners remains off an isolated road in central Oregon and was the last person to see his stepdaughter alive. Just like with Kaye, detectives would never know what had happened to Ackroyds stepdaughter, Rachanda Pickle. 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 and why did you settle on that approach? She didnt talk much about what had happened. . The home showed no signs of foul play. The familys kittens were curled up on the girls lap, he said. Also, Ackroyd was a local guy whose mother worked at the police department as an office worker. But detectives long suspected Ackroyd preyed on women who disappeared along or around Highway 20 from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Karens case and the others from that era were all but forgotten. How did you find out she tied her hair back and that the couple couldnt afford the buckskin boots she wore, and what she told her daughter? Tagged: The Oregonian. Theirs is a cold-case mystery that began with a tip about a possible serial killer. This is another of the few times when we read extended dialogue, a hallmark of classic narrative. On one of our many reporting trips along Highway 20, the three of us tracked down the approximate location of the attack based on Marlenes account and police reports. Marlene Gabrielsen was raped by John Ackroyd in 1978. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. She remembered looking up to see small flowers in bloom. Take hot dogs out of the freezer. At first, shes just taking the info from Linda Ackroyd. Their deaths exposed Ackroyd as a serial killer and raised the possibility of other killings. sat and waited to hear his fate. He claimed hed reached down to touch the slain womans arm and hair. We needed to say that. She recounted the attack in detail, how the man cut off her underwear and boots. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. The dialogue and scene-setting details how Ackroyd tapped his leg with his knife, for instance came from interviews with Marlene. Actually, the beginning and the ending were the most rewritten parts of the series, as we knew they would be.