Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer

by Gary C. King

  "Did he remove your clothing?"

  "He didn't take them all the way off. He pulled my top up to expose my breasts, and pulled my pants down to my ankles."

  "Were you wearing underpants?"

  "Yes."

  "What did he do with those?"

  "He pulled them down with my pants."

  "Are you having your menstrual period?"

  "Yes. I've been on it for three days."

  "Were you wearing a sanitary napkin?"

  "A tampon."

  "Did he remove this?"

  "Yes."

  "Then he made penetration?"

  "Um-hum." She blushed slightly.

  "Did he threaten you with any physical force if you didn't submit to him?"

  "Well, he said things. Like he might have a gun or a knife." Although she hadn't seen any weapons, Cindy told Burnum that she felt threatened by his statements about the gun and the knife.

  "How long did the intercourse continue?"

  "I have no idea. I did not have a chance to look at my watch."

  "Was it a long time?"

  "Yes."

  "Was he kissing you while this was taking place?"

  "Yes."

  "Your hands were tied behind your back?"

  "Um-hum."

  "Did he continue until he reached a climax?"

  "Yes."

  "And how did you know this?"

  "Because he told me."

  "Then what did he do?"

  "He got off me. I talked to him for a while, and he agreed to undo my hands and feet, to let me sit normally for a while. I asked him when he was going to take me back to my car, and he told me I might not want to know. Then he said when he was finished with me, after he had done it a second time. That was when he attacked me the second time, but he didn't climax and finally gave up."

  "You hadn't pulled your clothes up after the first time?"

  "No."

  "Were you laying in the seat or sitting up?"

  "Sitting up."

  "With your pants down."

  "Well, I was pulling them up, and that's when he told me he wouldn't let me go until he had me a second time. He pinned me on the seat."

  "Did he take off his clothing?"

  "Yes."

  "Completely?"

  "His pants."

  "Did he take his underwear off?"

  "Yes."

  "The second time he continued to have intercourse with you for some time, but never reached a climax. Is that right?"

  "Um-hum."

  "What did he say?"

  "Just that he was going to give up. He was getting sore, or something. I asked if he would take me back to my car and let me go, and he said he supposed he might as well. But as he started to back up, he got his car stuck in the mud and changed his mind. He said he wouldn't let me go, and that he was going to kidnap me. He said he was going to do things to me, really rude, mean things."

  "Then you escaped from him?"

  "I told him I needed a breath of fresh air and that I needed to go to the bathroom, any excuse I could think of to get out of that car. Finally he let me out to go to the bathroom, and I took off running."

  "He didn't chase you?"

  "No, he didn't."

  "Were you afraid of him?"

  "Very."

  "But the act was a forceful act, not a fearful act?"

  "It was forceful."

  "Completely against your will?"

  "Um-hum."

  "Did you drink beer with him?"

  "Yes, one beer."

  "That was purchased in Salem by him?"

  Cindy nodded yes.

  "Was he using any drugs?" asked Burnum.

  "Pot. He was smoking pot."

  "Did you smoke pot with him?"

  "Yes, I did. I took one hit off of a joint. I told him I didn't smoke pot and he kept saying, 'Come on, it's okay.' So I took one hit. He smoked two joints, I think."

  "Have you had any prior sex in the past seventy-two hours?"

  "No."

  Dayton, in the meantime, protested about being detained and seemed surprised when he was informed that Cindy Jones was alleging that he had raped her. He remained with Deputy Swa-ney, who advised him of his rights. Swaney informed Dayton that he was not under arrest at that time, but suggested that it would be a good idea to tell his side of the story so that they could get the matter straightened out. As Dayton answered Swaney's questions, his Chevrolet Malibu was pulled out of the mud and towed to a secure location. He signed a consent form so they could search his vehicle.

  Dayton told Swaney that he did not know Cindy Jones prior to meeting her several hours earlier, at 9:30 P.M. Thursday night, not 1:00 A.M. as Cindy had said. After agreeing to go driving with him and getting inside his car, they drove to Cascade Park in Salem, where they drank beer and "made out." Dayton said that he kissed her, fondled her breasts, and rubbed his hand up and down her legs and over her panties. He said that he did not push his hands inside her panties at that time, and insisted that what they had done was mutually agreeable. She had not resisted his advances.

  At one point they drove back to Cindy's car, where she was to have met another man. But the man didn't show up, and they decided to go driving again, ending up on Barlow Road near Canby. Dayton was familiar with the area, he said, because he had fished there several times before and it seemed like a good place to go necking.

  After making out for several minutes, Cindy climbed into the backseat and Dayton followed her. He lowered his pants and helped Cindy pull hers down, and then engaged in intercourse until Dayton reached a climax. He moved back into the front seat, where he rested for several minutes, then asked Cindy if she wanted "to get it on again." According to Dayton's version, Cindy asked him if he wanted her to remove all of her clothes the second time, and he had said yes. Following suit, Cindy asked Dayton to take off all of his clothes, and he removed everything except his socks. After climbing into the backseat again, they tried many different positions, some with Dayton on top and others with Cindy sitting on him. In one instance, with Cindy on her knees, he tried to mount her from behind.

  "I was going to have it from the rear, but couldn't reach a climax the second time," Dayton told Swaney. "So I quit." He moved back into the front seat.

  Cindy leaned forward through the opening between the bucket seats and began teasing about having him charged with rape and kidnapping. Her teasing nature soon turned more serious, and she made the threats in an angry tone. She began telling him how she had been in trouble before, having spent time in a juvenile detention center. She said that men thought she was cute, and as a result she had been raped several times before, she said. She bragged about the size of her breasts, boasting that they measured 36-D and helped make it easy for her to attract men.

  After she demanded that he take her back to her car, Dayton attempted to back his car out of where they had been parked but somehow veered into a large muddy area, where it became stuck. At Dayton's suggestion, Cindy took the steering wheel while he tried to push, to no avail. Angrily, Cindy got out of the car and said she would walk. The last time he saw her she was headed east on Barlow Road. Throughout his entire statement Dayton insisted that the sexual activity between himself and Cindy had been mutual.

  "She was as aggressive as I was," he said.

  During the search of his 1967 Malibu, sheriff's deputies seized a plastic bag of "green vegetable material" believed to be marijuana, two eighteen-inch strands of electrical wire, one black and one red, one bundle of speaker wire eighteen feet long, and a terry cloth rag. Following the search, Dayton was released and allowed to take his car.

  When Dayton returned home, he never told his wife what had happened. When she eventually found out about the incident, Dayton told her that he was being falsely accused, the victim of mistaken identity. Being newly married, young, and naive, Sherry wanted very much to believe him, and she did. But her hopes were dashed on January 13, 1976, when Dayton was indicted by a Cla
ckamas County grand jury on a charge of first-degree rape. He was allowed to remain free pending a May trial.

  On Friday, February 20, 1976, pretty Anna Buchanan,* nineteen, was walking along the right-hand side of Highway 22 toward Salem. She had just left the Oregon State Correctional Institution, where she had visited her inmate boyfriend, and was headed to the Greyhound depot in Salem, where she would catch a bus that would take her to Oregon City, forty miles to the north, then another one to her home in the hamlet of Beavercreek. With her mind preoccupied about getting home, she might not have noticed the car when it drove past if it hadn't been a bright yellow one. Since it stood out, she had looked up just as it whizzed by. It was a 1970 Ford Mustang, and it was going in the direction of Bend, some 160 miles to the southeast in central Oregon. It was 3:30 P.M., overcast, and the landscape was shrouded in a heavy mist. Anna was wet and tired, anxious to get home.

  Before Anna realized what was happening, the yellow Mustang's driver had turned it around and pulled up alongside her.

  "Hi! Wanna ride?" The driver flashed Anna a wide smile.

  Anna thought for a moment. Although she wasn't hitchhiking, it was an opportunity to get out of the inclement weather. And he seemed okay. Besides, he could get her to the bus depot faster than she could walk there, giving her even more time to get something to eat before her bus was scheduled to leave.

  "All right. Thanks," she said as she climbed into the passenger seat.

  "Have you ever been to Silver Falls State Park?" he asked.

  "No. Is it near here?"

  "It's not far. I've got some pot to smoke, and some beer. Wanna go up there with me?"

  She thought his proposition over for a moment. The prospect of getting high was enticing, and it soon won out over getting something to eat.

  "Sure. But I've only got a couple of hours before my bus leaves."

  "Oh, we'll be back long before then." He wheeled the Mustang around again and drove a short distance before turning onto Oregon 214. Soon they were in a remote area, but Anna paid little notice to the heavy forest as she puffed on a joint he had offered her. As she passed it back to her newfound friend, she saw a sign that indicated the park was not far away.

  As they drove into Silver Falls State Park they made small talk, each more than a little spaced out from the marijuana. There weren't very many people in the park, it being still winter. Most people were just getting off work, and for those who weren't, it was too cold and too late in the day for such an outing. The two drove on and viewed all of the waterfalls, including the largest for which the park was named, then turned onto a gravel road that led deeper into the forest and to a part of the park that was now all their own.

  "I have to go to the bathroom," said the man, holding a Budweiser. He got out of the car and went into some bushes. After a couple of minutes he returned, sipping on the beer.

  "Let's listen to some music," he said. "Why don't you get into the backseat and hand me the box of tapes? Stay back there if you like. It's more comfortable."

  After four more beers and three additional joints, Anna told the man that it was getting late and that she had to get back to the bus station. When she tried to get back into the front seat, he stopped her, saying that he had to clear a place for her to sit first. In the next instant he opened the glove box and took out a knife. In her fear, all Anna could see was the blade.

  "You do what I say and I won't hurt you," he said, emotionless. He told her to sit on her knees with her hands behind her back. Anna didn't move. "I'm going to count to ten, and if you don't do as I say, I'm going to hurt you." Anna, seeing the blade and the evil in his eyes, didn't wait for him to commence counting. She did as she was told.

  Anna, on her knees, turned around and faced the rear window, her hands crossed behind her. The man took a long strand of wire and wrapped it around them at the wrists, tightly, leaving only enough slack so as to not cut off her circulation. He then instructed her to lie face down on the seat.

  "Why did you tie me like that?" Anna asked, crying.

  "I'm going to fuck you," he replied. "I don't want you to be able to hurt me." He then hog-tied her left foot to her hands, leaving her right foot and leg free.

  He took the knife and, holding it in his right hand, cut Anna's shirt. After the cut was started, he put the knife on the seat and ripped her shirt the rest of the way off. He repeated the process with her pants and underpants. When she was naked, he touched her breasts, then began squeezing them. He moved downward, between her legs, and placed his middle finger inside her vagina. Anna gasped, and her whole body stiffened as he pushed it in deeper, as far as it would go, and rhythmically repeated the process. When it grew tiresome for him, he moved on down to her feet, kissing and biting them.

  As he acted out his foot fetish, the man mumbled other women's names. It was as if he were fantasizing that Anna was someone else he knew, perhaps a family member. He was really turned on by now, and his mumbling became even more strange. He began talking about how he had slept with his mother and father as a boy, and muttered things about a cousin who had a foot fetish and had told him about kissing and biting women's feet. He told Anna that he had done what he was doing to her to other women, and that it really aroused him sexually. It was one of the few ways he enjoyed sex, he said.

  Suddenly a red pickup came out of nowhere and roared down the road near where they were parked. The man was jolted out of his fantasy state and was thrown into a near panic. Had the pickup's driver seen them? Had he gotten a good look at his car? Unnerved, the man moved to another location within the confines of the park. After trying to convince himself that he was safe from detection, he attempted to resume his activities. However, it just wasn't the same. He was rattled, frightened that he might have been seen. He untied Anna and threw the wire out of the window toward the forest.

  "I'm going to have to kill you," he told the terrified teenager.

  "Why? I won't tell. Just let me go."

  "Shut up! I need time to think about how I'm going to kill you."

  He mumbled something about kidnapping her instead, holding her for ransom. But Anna told him that her parents didn't have any money.

  "That's okay. The police will pay the ransom," he said.

  He handed Anna a white T-shirt and her orange leather jacket, and allowed her to put them on. Then, without saying anything, he drove back down Highway 22 to Interstate 5, leaving Anna wondering where he was taking her. With a faraway look in his eyes, he took the Woodburn exit and drove north on 99E through the community of Canby, where he cut over to Highway 213 and headed south again, toward Molalla. It was dark when he turned off onto a logging road that runs parallel to the Molalla River. He brought the Mustang to a stop at a narrow turnaround just before reaching a logging bridge that crossed the river.

  "I can't let you go," he said calmly. "You would go to the police."

  "No, no, I wouldn't," Anna assured him, cowering in the backseat. "You could let me out near my grandmother's house in Oregon City. She's not at home, but I can get inside. I can find something else to wear before going home. You'll see; I won't tell."

  "Get on your knees again," he commanded. "I'll take you to your grandmother's house tied up, and if she's not at home I'll leave you there."

  He bound Anna again, just like before. But this time, because he had thrown the wire out at Silver Falls State Park, he used strips of cloth that he cut from her jeans. Satisfied that she was securely tied, he ripped one of the ties from Anna's blouse and went toward her neck with it.

  "I have to kill you," he said as he wrapped the ligature around his hands and moved closer to her. "I don't have any choice."

  As he wrapped the ligature around her neck and began to pull, Anna struggled violently, so fiercely that one of her hands broke free. Reacting instantly, she picked up one of her shoes that was lying on the seat beside her and smashed it with all of her might into the side of his head. Dazed and confused, the man let go of the ligature and backed away
. Strangely, he no longer seemed threatening, but was now, instead, himself afraid. Anna continued to thrash about until all of her bindings came loose, and she continued to fight him, trying to get into the front seat. But he kept pushing her back. Finally she sat still and started talking about her grandmother's house again, hoping to take his mind off killing her. Anna's talking and the sight of two cars crossing the bridge nearby prompted the man to start the car and drive away. He headed toward Oregon City.

  It was 8 P.M. when he pulled up in front of the grandmother's house. After making her give back the T-shirt she was wearing, the man let Anna out of the car, wearing only her orange leather jacket. When she was safely inside her grandmother's house, Anna called the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department.

  A report was taken by a road deputy that same night, and Anna was taken to a local hospital, where she was examined and released. Because it was a weekend, it would take until the following Tuesday for the report of Anna's attack to reach the detective division.

  Chapter 11

  Unfortunately, before Clackamas County Sheriff's Detective Sergeant W. H. Burnum could interview Anna Buchanan and put two and two together to come up with Dayton Leroy Rogers as his prime suspect in Anna's case, Dayton, driving his wife's yellow Mustang, was trolling Salem's streets again. It was ironic that Dayton would add two more young victims to his growing list while Burnum and Marion County Sheriff's Detective Jan Cummings interviewed Anna on February 24, 1976.

  By 3 P.M. Anna had finished relating her terrifying ordeal to the two detectives, and they had only a few more questions for her. When they walked out of the interview room at the Marion County Sheriff's Office, located in the basement of the county courthouse, Burnum and Cummings were alerted to the two new sexual assaults. The reports, taken a couple of hours earlier, hadn't even had time to filter down through the law enforcement bureaucracy. If not for the astuteness of an inquisitive deputy who recognized the similarities between the new reports and the one Burnum and Cummings were investigating, not to mention the one Burnum had already cleared involving the alleged rape of Cindy Jones, it might have taken a couple of days to reach the detectives. As it turned out, they heard about it almost immediately and scheduled interviews with the two new victims for midmorning the following day.