by Gary C. King
Lewman found two nearly vertical one-half-inch long stab wounds within the area of the Harley Davidson tattoo and found corresponding stab wounds in the underlying tissue. He found another stab wound five inches to the left, and two others left of the vertebral column.
Body #3 was either a Caucasian or a Caucasian Mongoloid mix. Like the others, the victim was female. She had long brown hair, and Lewman estimated her age to have been in the late twenties to early thirties. She had previous surgery to her left jaw and was about five feet six inches tall. In life, she would have had a notable overbite.
Lewman noted that the victim had been eviscerated, cut open from the pubic bone to the ster-num. The cut was deep, reaching the underlying muscles and subcutaneous tissue. The victim, if conscious when the cut was made, would have died horribly. Lewman also pointed out that the nipple/areola of the left breast was missing. In its place was an oval-shaped defect, one and three-quarters inches in diameter, where it apparently had been incised, cutting the nipple completely off. The pain, if done while the victim was conscious, would have been unbearable.
The revelation hit John Turner like a locomotive as he recalled his conversation the previous evening with Lisa Daniels, in which she had said that Dayton Leroy Rogers had threatened to cut off her breasts. What kind of sadistic monster was Turner dealing with here? Was there nothing that Dayton wouldn't do to his victims to achieve his sick form of sexual gratification? Turner and his colleagues had no reason to believe that the victims were unconscious when all the cutting and sawing occurred. Instead, the evidence was beginning to indicate that they were likely very much alive and conscious during their horrible encounters with the killer. They likely went into shock and died while being tortured.
As he watched Lewman work, Turner briefly recalled to himself the hacksaw he seized from Dayton's shop, and reflected on how the serrated edge of such a tool's blade would do a very good job of puncturing and slicing through flesh and bone, as had been done to victims #1 and #2. Unfortunately, no traces of blood or tissue had been found on it. But that didn't mean that it couldn't have been carefully cleaned after each use. Dayton was, after all, a stickler for neatness.
Body #4 was another Caucasian female, late twenties to early thirties, long curly brown hair, approximately five feet four inches tall. Lewman did not observe any cutting wounds in any of the long leg bones, but when he turned the remains over he noted several vertically oriented perforations in the lumbar region of the back, on both sides of the vertebral column. Four of the wounds measured one-half inch in length, and a fifth one was five-eighths of an inch long. He said the cause of death could have been caused by the stab wounds to the posterior trunk.
Body #5 was a Caucasian female, likely in her early to mid-thirties, with an estimated height of between five feet two inches to five feet four inches. The victim had generally poor dentition, with an upper denture plate that was still in place. Several teeth were missing prior to death, and the right foot had been severed above the ankle. As with the severed feet of bodies #1 and #2, tool marks were visible. Unlike the others, however, the hands of victim #5 had been bound together with a one-inch belt that looked like a dog collar, buckled over the dorsum of the left hand. Lewman left the belt in place.
Clearly, all of the victims would had to have been bound to facilitate the killer in his acts of torture and dismemberment. But Turner thought it unusual that the killer had left victim #5 bound like that, and not the others. Why hadn't he taken the time to remove the bindings? Had he been frightened away by something or someone intruding into his outdoor torture chamber? Turner momentarily recalled the pigeons Everett Banyard had reported seeing fly away suddenly, shortly after having seen a man in a small blue Datsun pickup stop nearby. Had Dayton carried the body, still bound, from his pickup to the woods, leaving the restraint in place on the victim after being frightened by Banyard? Turner decided that he might never know, especially since Banyard had been unable to positively identify the man driving the pickup and was uncertain about the exact date.
Lewman noted several circular to irregular defects in the victim's back, as well as on the right buttock. The perforations were one-quarter to five-sixteenths of an inch deep. Similarly, there was a gaping one-half-inch horizontal defect in the left posterior flank region and another gaping, ragged defect, approximately four inches in length, nearby.
Autopsies on bodies #6 and #7 were somewhat more difficult, primarily because the remains had been scattered. As best as Lewman could determine, however, body #6 was an adult female, possibly twenty to thirty-two years old. She had been about five feet tall, had a somewhat stocky build, and had two top front teeth that were rotated inward. One of those teeth, the one on the top left, was chipped. Lewman figured the victim was of mixed racial heritage, perhaps part American Indian or Asian and part Caucasian. Lewman noted tool marks in the ankle region, evidence that the killer had considered or had even tried to cut or saw her feet off but had given up for some reason.
Body #7 was a Caucasian female, probably in her thirties, about five feet eight inches tall and with dark brown hair. Lewman didn't observe any saw or cut marks on either leg, but the condyles of each had been completely chewed off by animals. The victim's nasal bones were irregular, slightly deviated to the right, which Lewman guessed might have been caused by an old nose fracture. Like the others, he found several stab wounds to the posterior trunk and guessed that had been the cause of death.
Lewman explained that four of the bodies had been at the Molalla forest site for from one to three months. The others had been there longer, but he couldn't say with any degree of certainty just how much longer. He said the level of decomposition could vary significantly if the bodies had been exposed to varying amounts of sunlight and other elements.
Four of the bodies, he told the detectives, had enough flesh remaining on the hands and could be fingerprinted. He also explained that all of the victims had distinctive dental work.
"If we have a clue on who we're dealing with, I think we can readily rule people in or out."
During the autopsies, it was pointed out that the Molalla forest victims were significantly different from the Green River Killer's victims, and the Green River Killer could thus be ruled out as the perpetrator. Taking that point one step further, Turner interjected that Dayton Leroy Rogers could not be the Green River Killer due to the fact that he was incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary at the time the first Green River victims were believed killed.
To sum up, Lewman told the detectives that all of the victims suffered multiple stab wounds to their lower backs. However, because the bodies were so badly decomposed, he said he couldn't determine conclusively the exact cause of death in any of the victims. Instead, he would list on their "Jane Doe" death certificates that they died as a result of "homicidal violence of undetermined type." He explained that there was just no way for him to positively determine whether the stab wounds had been inflicted before or after death. He said the wounds appeared to have been caused by a single-edged knife with a blade about one-half to five-eighths of an inch across, and concurred that the injuries of the Molalla forest victims were consistent with the type of kitchen knife that Dayton Rogers had used to kill Jenny Smith.
Chapter 16
On Saturday afternoon, September 5, a Clackamas County Sheriff's Office desk officer contacted John Turner at the Molalla forest site by radio and informed him that Heather Brown had been located. Portland police officers had picked her up on Union Avenue around 4:30 P.M. and were holding her in an interview room at the downtown Justice Center. Turner and Machado arrived at the Justice Center shortly before 7 P.M. and were escorted to the thirteenth floor, where Heather was waiting for them.
Turner reminded Heather that they were there to follow up on the kidnapping report she had initiated on July 7, in which she reported being taken to an area outside Molalla. In light of the more recent and macabre discoveries in the same area, Turner explained to her, it was imp
ortant that she recall as much detail about the incident as possible. Heather agreed to cooperate fully.
"Was there anything strange or unusual about the guy that picked you up?" asked Turner.
"No, not at first," said Heather. "He seemed all right to me."
"Why did you want to get in the truck?"
"He offered me fifty dollars for a date. He said he was going to Oregon City and wanted some company. He stopped along the way and bought some juice at a 7-Eleven, then stopped at a liquor store and bought these little bottles of vodka."
"What kind of vodka?"
"Oh, they're tiny bottles. Smirnoff, I think." She used her hands to indicate a very small bottle.
"Did he buy them in a carton?"
"Yeah."
"What did the two of you talk about while driving?"
"He told me he was from Las Vegas, that he was a gigolo. He said he liked to tie women up."
"Did he describe how he liked to tie women up?"
"Not really. He said he liked to tie women up and fuck their brains out, stuff like that. I knew he was crazy from the way he was talking. He said he had this foot fetish. It was just weird. He took his shoes off and said he liked to screw around with his feet."
"He would have put his toes in your vagina? Something like that?"
"I guess. Something like that." Heather lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "He wanted to screw around in, or on, my feet. He wanted to screw my feet."
Heather explained that the man who picked her up told her that he used to have an Oriental woman he "dated" regularly, but that he hadn't seen her in quite a while and instead had decided on Heather. While they were driving, she said she asked him why they had to go so far away to carry out their date. He told her that he liked the spot where they were going and that he had taken a lot of girls up there.
"Did he say where, specifically, he had taken them?" asked Turner.
"No. Just in the woods."
"Did he say where he had met these other girls?"
"Well, I'm sure it was on Union."
"Did you drink any of the vodka on the way out there?"
"Very little. And he got kind of angry 'cause I wouldn't drink more. He kept saying, well, 'Drink some more, drink some more,' and kept shoving it at me."
"How did he mix the vodka?"
"He bought the little plastic bottles of orange juice. Then he'd take a little bit of orange juice out and then he'd dump in the vodka. It looked like you were just drinking the orange juice."
"The individual-type containers?"
"Yes, like single serving size."
"Did he talk to you about his home? Where he lived? Did he say if he had children or if he was married?"
"He said he wasn't married and that he didn't have any kids."
"I've got some photographs here that I want you to take a look at. Now, the guy that was driving that truck like you described may or may not be among them. Please look carefully at each one of these and tell me if you recognize any of them. Okay?"
Turner placed the throwdown of six photographs on the table in front of Heather. Fourteen seconds later, she pointed to photo number three.
"Okay. That looks like him."
"Do you have any doubt about it?"
"That's him! That nose, I remember that nose."
She was pointing to the photo of Dayton Leroy Rogers.
Clackamas County sheriff's deputies and the search and rescue explorers continued their search for evidence in the Molalla forest throughout the weekend. Their efforts paid off. Before the weekend was over, searchers found a Regency-Sheffield kitchen knife, identical to the one found at the scene of Jenny Smith's murder. If Turner had held any doubts that Dayton Rogers was the Molalla forest killer, the knife's discovery had quickly erased them.
Although no additional bodies were found, the searchers had bagged more than five hundred items of evidence from the area, including nine miniature Smirnoff vodka bottles. They also found four other alcohol bottles, several pairs of women's pantyhose, some of which had been knotted and conceivably could have been used as restraints or bondage devices, a pair of "Garfield" panties, a bra and another pair of panties, a pair of blue jeans, a Playboy bunny pendant, braided rope, wire, knotted cloth, a leather dog collar, and several sections of knotted shoelaces that had been looped at both ends like those found at the scene of Jenny Smith's murder. They also found four plastic orange juice bottles, the individual serving type, clustered in an area where one of the victims had lain, as well as paper cartons or cases that Smirnoff miniatures had come in.
One of those cartons was fairly new, still in good condition, while the other one was old and weathered. Turner was convinced now more than ever that Dayton was their man. The evidence clearly pointed toward him. But the skeletonized remains and the older, worn Smirnoff carton, troubled him. Not that such evidence didn't point to Dayton, but that it indicated he had been busy up in the Molalla forest a lot longer than they had first suspected.
How long? No one could say. Were there other bodies up there? Most likely. But the area was too vast and the terrain too difficult to search aimlessly without finding another body to point them in the right direction. No law enforcement agency had the type of manpower, not to mention money, that would be needed to search every square foot of a forest as immense as the one outside Molalla. If additional bodies didn't turn up in the areas they were searching, they would have no choice but to call off the search unless or until someone unwittingly stumbled across another body, like Everett Banyard had done.
Chapter 17
On Monday morning, September 7, after having compared notes with missing persons detectives at the Portland Police Bureau, Mike Machado decided that there was a good chance that Body #2 was that of Lisa Marie Mock. The tattoos on the victim's body seemed to match those describing Lisa in Portland's missing person report. The report also indicated that Lisa had talked to her grandmother shortly before she disappeared. Machado located Lisa's grandmother in California and called her to see what, if anything, he could learn that might shed some light on Lisa's last known activities and possibly tie in with the Molalla forest case.
Lisa's grandmother said that Lisa had called her collect on July 22 at 7:42 P.M. and had talked to her for twenty-eight minutes. Because Lisa had called collect, the grandmother, after the family became concerned about Lisa's well-being, later called the telephone number that appeared on the bill and found that Lisa's call had come from a Portland automotive garage. Lisa had told her grandmother that her husband was beating up on her and that she planned to leave him. She was also on heroin again and was planning to go to an abuse center as soon as she could get away from her husband. When asked about identifying marks or tattoos, Lisa's grandmother told Machado that Lisa had a butterfly tattoo on the upper part of her left arm, and on her lower back, near her buttocks, she had a tattoo that included the word "bitch." She explained that at one time Lisa had been hanging around with a gang of bikers—Hell's Angels, she thought. The grandmother said that Lisa had another tattoo on one of her shoulders, but she couldn't recall which shoulder. It was a tattoo of a unicorn.
Machado subsequently contacted Lisa's father, James Holden, who was also living in California, and explained to him that the sheriff's office was placing Lisa at the top of their priority list due to the tattoos that were described by him in his initial contact with Portland detectives, as well as the description provided by Lisa's grandmother. Machado said that Lisa's tattoos matched those found on body #2 and the time of Lisa's disappearance was consistent with the time the Molalla victim was believed to have been killed.
Holden told Machado that he had last heard from Lisa on July 22 or 23, when she called to say she was leaving her husband because he was beating her and because he had hocked her car, which had all of her clothes inside it.
"She said that all she had with her were some shorts and a blouse," said Holden. "She asked me for a hundred and fifty dollars. She was on something at t
he time, but I don't know what it was. She wouldn't tell me. Lisa was really scattery."
Holden put Machado in touch with Lisa's dentist in California, who agreed to send Lisa's dental charts to Oregon immediately. When the dental charts arrived, Body #2 was positively identified as Lisa Marie Mock, twenty-three.
Because no additional bodies were found in the Molalla forest, the search for more victims was halted. Because of the seriousness and enormity of the case, Sheriff Bill Brooks assigned John Turner to head up the Molalla Forest Task Force, made up of most of the detectives who were already involved in the case. Sheriff Brooks directed that the task force's offices be kept secret, separate from the day-to-day activities of the sheriff's department, so that all involved could work with only minimal interruptions. The plan was designed to keep the media out of their hair. Captain Lloyd "Lonnie" Ryan, Lieutenant Donald Vicars, and Deputy Candace Dufur would keep the media up to date with information the task force deemed appropriate to release.
Deputies Dave Broomfield and Charles Bowen, the department's crime analysts, moved their computer equipment into place across the narrow office from Turner's desk. Once they had it all set up, they would attempt to match up the thousands of bits of seemingly unrelated information that they hoped would produce some kind of pattern. On another side of the room, detectives Strovink and Machado set up their work spaces where they could easily confer with one another and compare notes without having to leave their desks. Near their work spaces they added a large bulletin board, where they could pin information and charts within easy viewing distance. They placed a grid map in another office across the hall, on which they plotted the locations of the bodies and the evidence that was discovered. Nearby, support people typed up the official reports from the detectives' handwritten notes and answered the seemingly endless stream of telephone calls.