During the course of my reporting, I heard several references to this infamous Cline Falls attack, which took place around the time of Marlenes rape and Kayes murder. Benson and Snow set out to find the men who had the strange encounter with Ackroyd. Beth Nakamura / The Oregonian/OregonLive. The murder trial made headlines around the state. I tell new reporters not to do what I did; its a ridiculously inefficient way of amassing documents for a big project like this. He was willing to talk. Though they had grown apart in their marriage, he remembers Kaye with fondness. Some of these details were included in police reports. Sheilas parents had died, leaving her younger brother to carry on alone with his grief. Then theres Ackroyds first known victim. She talked about how she thought he was a logger or someone who made a living in the woods. Melissas parents awoke to find the young women gone, their tent empty. Instead, they focused on Kayes husband and possible ties between Kayes disappearance and extramarital relationships she had with two men at the time. At the same time, a dozen investigators working the Turner case seized on Ackroyds shifting accounts. And Bill Hanlon, the prosecutor who helped put Ackroyd away. This time you dramatize the action instead of summarizing it. Rachanda disappeared on July 10, 1990. Structurally, what was your intention? The familys kittens were curled up on the girls lap, he said. How odd, they thought. He picked her up 41 years ago at a campground outside Sisters, Oregon. In it, he thanked me for telling the stories of Ackroyds other victims. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison John Arthur Ackroyd - Top podcast episodes Her husband was abusive and she drifted from Ackroyd. When he returned, she asked for his phone number to help identify him but also to make him think she liked him. His arrest was imminent. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. At the hospital, an officer noted scratches on Marlenes back. Read millions of eBooks and audiobooks on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android. Another Oregon courthouse provided the backdrop for Ackroyds second prosecution. I used a massive spreadsheet for reference. [5] The answer was no. Then he started swinging at her with his hand.. That may have also played a role in their response. Sheila Swanson was 19 and from nearby Lebanon. Vulnerable and adrift, Melissa and Sheila knew nothing of Ackroyds sinister background when he entered their lives. The detectives who handled her disappearance retired. It seemed like decent shorthand for conveying the remoteness of this area. I wanted him to know that the reporting was continuing and that a story would likely appear sometime in the coming months. Mommy loves you too much, she whispered to her daughter, asleep in a bassinet. 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. It was essential. This story is complicated and confusing. Kelley Benham French read one of those footnoted drafts and suggested that we publish them all. Why? Plus, in an era of smartphones, a Timex wrist watch gives readers the sense that this crime happened in another era. Within months, without a body or physical evidence implicating Ackroyd, so did the investigation. But as time went on and fresh eyes viewed the case files, investigators finally pursued justice for numerous victims. Shes finally believed and theres satisfaction that comes with that. This is the area where Marlene Gabrielsen was raped off Highway 20 by John Ackroyd. The investigators sifted through the evidence collected from the woods where hunters came across Melissa and Sheilas bodies. The editing and revisions were often focused on fleshing out an idea and switching up styles so it wasnt all spare and lean if that makes sense. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. I had his work, schooling and military records. I also wanted to touch on the idea that this story served as a form of justice for Marlene. There was so much information to move through. The clue bore a chilling similarity to two of Ackroyds earlier assaults: Rape victim Marlene Gabrielsens boots and underwear were sliced and so was the waistband on Kaye Turners yellow jogging shorts. How did you decide which characters to include in the epilogue? She was looking for a ride and wandered out of the campground onto Highway 20, the route that leads through the heart of Sisters, back then little more than a dusty outpost amid pine forests in central Oregon. Annie was born on August 28 1876, in Ashfield Farnley Yorkshire. Their stories have another connection: One man is linked to all five crimes. Their deaths exposed Ackroyd as a serial killer and raised the possibility of other killings. The language of the story is spare and lean. Accused of felony theft as a teen, he opted to enlist in the Army and was stationed in Korea, Thailand and Germany, where he worked as a mechanic. Then, two decades later, in 2010, another detective picked up the file. I was so bewildered by this I was unclear where this was going and then he said, And when he entered his plea. You can hear me echo him on my recorder, When he entered his plea? I was so stunned that (Ackroyd) had done that, a no contest plea, and that there was no record of that in the court system. At the wrong place at the right time.. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped on the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. This detail is so specific. Dave, Beth and I spent a lot of time deep in the woods where these women were assaulted, killed and abandoned. The last time the two saw each other, Rachanda was in the backseat of a Chevy Blazer headed home. Of course they remembered. He had diabetes and a bad heart. This let us quickly introduce the five women we write about but also put them first in the mind of the reader. I knew from his coworkers that his truck likely didnt have AC. John Arthur Ackroyd was an American murderer and may have been a serial killer. Ackroyd earned low grades in school; his high school diploma was marked special education. He was a loner, bullied and beaten by classmates. Mystery still shrouds much of what happened during Ackroyds final encounters with his victims, and thats not likely to change. They were there because they were investigating the killing of Kaye Turner, the woman who is the subject of Day 2. The annotation: Storyboards questions are in red; Crombies responses in blue. Snow worked the phones, digging up numbers for highway workers, many of them long retired. In your Emmy acceptance speech, you singled out your editor, Margaret Haberman. I dont know that its the theme. Harmon thought back to the handful of cases from the 1970s that remained unsolved: the bodies or clothes of women and one young man found in the isolated wilderness of Linn County, not far from Highway 20, the route Ackroyd spent years traveling for the state. Then Linda tells her that Rachanda has been gone for 24 hours and the dispatcher stumbles a bit. The district attorney said he was unable to talk about it something was prohibiting him. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive. The judge didnt remember the circumstances and the lawyers for each side pointed fingers at one another. The highway worker had hurt Rachanda, stuffed her into a garbage bag and hauled her away, Linn County Sheriffs Detective Jim Salsbery said during one of their interviews. We chose to go with the legacy of the investigation. Pretty bleak. His story about inviting the girl to photograph wildlife that morning never made sense to Rachandas family and friends. Marlene glimpsed a .22-caliber rifle on a rack in the cab and a hunting knife stuck in the lid of an old coffee can near the drivers seat. Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders were murdered in 1992, in Lincoln County, Oregon. She invited us in and we waited for Noel to return from running an errand. Ghosts of Highway 20, Episode 5 - ACKROYD. I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. The others: Did you force her to have sex at knifepoint? The general store in Camp Sherman, Oregon, where John Ackroyd showed up to report he had discovered some clothing in the woods that might've belonged to Kaye Turner, whose disappearance in 1978 caused a stir that lingered for years in this small vacation community just off Highway 20. I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. John Ackroyd killed Kaye Turner, he replied. I made paper copies of everything. 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. She went missing in 1990 12 years after Kayes killing and just down the highway. Do investigators believe Ackroyd was responsible for these unsolved deaths? It wasnt far from where the teens remains were found. First: Marlene Gabrielsen, raped in 1977. It was just a hell of a story. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? Ackroyd graduated from Clare College, Cambridge (M.A., 1971), and then attended Yale University for two years. Was the use of such sickening details debated before the story ran? These particular details are important as circumstantial evidence. What lay behind that decision? How did it affect you and your colleagues? Do you or any of the detectives have any suspicions why it was sealed? The Turner case file filed a metal file cabinet and was a reporters dream as far as narrative details. The nut graf is: One woman was raped, four others disappeared. 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. Eventually, the investigation stalled. The two camps on the ending: Stop at Ackroyds death with a scene of a cop looking around the killers cell for a confession but finding nothing. In fact, when she didnt feel I was doing enough on the project, she made that clear. Find books like John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer: A collection of True Crime from the world's largest community of readers. I dont think we talked about that because he died so early in my reporting. Dave listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. Her mother noticed the girls hairbrush, makeup and earrings were still there. My editors, Therese Bottomly and Margaret Haberman, told me over and over to think about scenes and to identify cliffhangers. Show All. If you have experienced sexual violence and need support, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. They led her into a small room with a desk. Hanlon, whod spent his career practicing law in rural Oregon, knew of Ackroyd from reading a slim three-ring binder stashed in a cardboard box left behind by his predecessor. Yes! And Harmon hadn't uncovered any physical evidence linking Ackroyd to Rachanda's disappearance. Local cops tracked down Sheilas mother. I also wanted to touch on the idea that this story served as a form of justice for Marlene. He had done all his talking to investigators during hours of interrogations after Kaye vanished. We felt and processed their profound grief. The time had stopped. Span of crimes. This is a crucial moment where Ackroyd is confronted with one of these crimes, in this case Rachandas disappearance. For more than a month in late 1993, Ackroyd sat impassively in a courtroom at the historic Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Madras, about an hours drive across the high desert from where Kaye had disappeared. A doctor identified bruising on her back, legs and knee. His confidants were a pair of child molesters serving long prison sentences. June 12, 2022 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 A cinnamon candy? Court and police files contained several references to Jane. This is also the story of John Ackroyd, also know as The Highway 20 Killer. The nut graf is: One woman was raped, four others disappeared. In 1973 he returned to England and worked as an editor for The Spectator. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? She often wore a black leather jacket that her parents paid for on installments. John Arthur Ackroyd was a state highway mechanic whose route took him along Route 20 from the Cascade Foothills to the Pacific Ocean's coast. Vacuum the house. Will McAnulty, one of the detectives, suggested they run through the scene one more time. Yes, we saw Highway 20 as its own theme and character. Its got humanity and poignancy but it also lets readers know that ultimately some questions about the Turner murder were never answered. Was there a question she was afraid to answer? From the outside, he seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady The story reaches its powerful chronological conclusion. You use just 67 words to effectively condense the details of a crime that must have been full of detail. The ending because you want to leave readers with a meaningful and hopefully memorable coda, the lasting impression. Jane, then 24, was on her bicycle, headed home from a waitressing job when she noticed Ackroyd standing near his pickup parked along the side of the road in Camp Sherman. He drove another 12 miles down the road and stopped in front of her mother-in-laws house in Lebanon, where shed asked him to drop her off. I asked her about his clothing. She was 13. It was my way of acknowledging to the reader that this has been an epic tale that wont have a Hollywood ending. Buy John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton at Mighty Ape Australia. 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. By then, The Oregonian/OregonLive also was investigating Ackroyd. A thought skittered I asked him for an interview. I moved my desk next to Daves. She confided in two girls who were sisters. I am totally innocent, he said, his breathing labored, and Ill say that until the day I die. She listened to pop stars Debbie Gibson and Wilson Phillips in her bedroom and teased her brother, who was her protector and playground companion. I was working with a massive amount of information, a long span of years and a huge slice of Oregon geography. In a war with the French king Philip II, he lost Normandy and almost all his other possessions in France. Click here to find personal data about John Ackroyd including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. Read John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton with a free trial. The body count tied to Ackroyd was now up to four. Serial Killer John Arthur Ackroyd was a true monster. It was a 30-minute drive to the nearest store for milk. Some workers used them to keep cool in summer months. They werent expected back until afternoon. I lied like hell back then, she told McAnulty. Some suspect he was but no evidence links him to these cases. Hes a grandfather now. He said he gave her a pair of pants because she had torn hers while taking them off. I was riding in another car with a couple of investigators. It provided readers with a sense of place but also helped propel the story along. A few days later, I received a handwritten letter from Noel. We chose to go with the legacy of the investigation. Ending with her in this way allowed me to highlight her resilience. In class, she counted down the minutes, a sense of dread rising as the end of the school day approached. Did you discover Jane Morris in the trial transcript? No, what do you think I am? Ackroyd said, his voice rising in rare agitation. Police had done extensive interviews with his supervisors and friends as well. 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. Both were present for almost every interview. But detectives long suspected Ackroyd preyed on women who disappeared along or around Highway 20 from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. A used rivet was discovered near her body. My mom was yelling at John to stop. Their stories have another connection: John Arthur Ackroyd.A highway mechanic who targeted women on the long stretch of highway that he know so well from endless trips.Calm and collected on the exterior, his personality hid the predator that raged within. Those contradictions, discrepancies and outright lies had led him to this moment. Marlene waited in the truck, afraid to move. For decades, investigators wanted peace for Rachanda, the lonely girl who was unhappy and out of place at the highway compound. The couple married in the mid-1980s but divorced after a year. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison John Arthur Ackroyd - Episode podcast teratas Too good to be true, Snow thought. The sheriff declined to comment last year and has since retired. She said her son was shy around women. I know from watching Dave Killens powerful documentary that much of what you summarize in the story, especially peoples voices, appears there instead of the print narrative. He glanced skyward. There was stuff I wanted to say about them that didnt really fit in elsewhere so this seemed like a good spot for that. Crombies lean prose, set off by stretches of staccato dialogue between investigators and their elusive suspect, relentlessly draws the reader into the mystery and misery behind Ackroyds killing spree. It made sense to strip it down. The district attorney said they had enough to take the case to a grand jury. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results John Arthur Ackroyd (1903 - 1914) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. But they knew Ackroyd was a killer. I tried to give quick references to time to guide without distracting the reader. John Arthur Ackroyd (died December 30, 2016) was an American murderer and may have been a serial killer. This is the story of, Rachanda Pickle, Kaye Turner, Marlene Gabrielson, Melissa Sanders, Shiela Swan, and potentially many others. The annotated version that ran online was a much shorter version of my own footnoted drafts of this story. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. Initially, he told police hed passed Kaye without stopping. I read the book while reporting this story and we made a trip to Cline Falls park during one of our trips to central Oregon. The reason for concealing the documents and who insisted on secrecy have been lost to time. Over the course of the investigation, he acted strangely. That late summer day, Ackroyd headed straight for Weston. You felt a tremendous obligation to the victims and their loved ones in telling this story. I kept approaching the local cops, detectives, some quite elderly, retired. How did you locate her? She talked about how it was late spring. In a separate call, his old coworker told the same story. This time, the DA says come on down and I met with him and his chief deputy and they basically walked me through the grand jury presentation. The investigators glanced at each other, stunned by the damning account all these years later. The time had stopped. She encountered Ackroyd and his hunting partner on a deserted road. This is a dramatic scene Ackroyd walks into the Sweet Home shop spattered with blood and offers a strange explanation. A report from the trial in the Bend (OR) Bulletin. I like how direct, clean and certain Hanlons quote is here. Harmon, the investigator who spent hours interviewing Ackroyd, was there, too. My editors, Therese Bottomly and Margaret Haberman, told me over and over to think about scenes and to identify cliffhangers. He ripped off her jeans with such force, the pants split from the waist to the ankle along the inseam. The anecdote revealed that Ackroyd knew Melissa and Sheila and that the young women were comfortable enough with him to climb into his truck. Sometimes they would drive away and turn back to get her. The state police detective assigned to investigate the killers death found Ackroyd on the floor of his cell, his sleep apnea machine still whirring and the breathing tube stuck in his throat, left over from last-ditch efforts to save him. Is this the theme of the story? I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. Would is a conditional verb indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation. Why? This is a crucial moment where Ackroyd is confronted with one of these crimes, in this case Rachandas disappearance. Where did it and the other information about Kayes run come from? His friends became sick at the sight and left. They began walking along U.S. 101, covering more than six miles to the turnoff to Highway 20, then headed east. I heard the river on one of those trips and took the liberty of saying he would have heard it too if his windows were rolled down. The shopkeeper, Christine Weston, recognized him. You aim to anticipate the next question theyll have. We had multiple victims across a large swath of rural Oregon and crimes that covered a long period of time.