Four years after they started, Benson and Snow had strung together enough evidence to take the double murder to a grand jury. Biography Edit. When he returned, she asked for his phone number to help identify him but also to make him think she liked him. This section could perhaps have served as a nut graf, placed much higher in the story. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped on the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. The project was a true collaboration. Do you or any of the detectives have any suspicions why it was sealed? The district attorney delivered his decision on whether to prosecute. Instead, they focused on Kayes husband and possible ties between Kayes disappearance and extramarital relationships she had with two men at the time. 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. The dialogue and scene-setting details how Ackroyd tapped his leg with his knife, for instance came from interviews with Marlene. Shes an extremely meticulous editor who was always pushing me for the extra detail, to make the extra call. The other man in the truck told police that Ackroyd wasnt the violent type and the woman was drunk. Had Ackroyd left a note telling them where to find her? In a war with the French king Philip II, he lost Normandy and almost all his other possessions in France. Her Timex wristwatch read about 8:15 a.m. He stuffed his cell with food from the prison commissary dozens of packages of processed meats and cheese, candy bars and beans. I knew from his coworkers that his truck likely didnt have AC. The hearing lasted about seven minutes. The reports dont shed light on why they doubted her. How did you decide on these and did they form part of the narrative strategy? Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive. 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. Who was this guy and what made him tick? In 1992 he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. How were you able to describe his breathing? Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? Victims of sexual assault often ask to remain anonymous. Why? Will McAnulty, one of the detectives, suggested they run through the scene one more time. So I shifted to the women he encountered. The process compounded his grief. 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. That may have also played a role in their response. A dozen or so work crews called the junction home. A scrap from her blue pullover, her underwear and a remnant of the heel from one of her Nikes. For years, only those in the room would know what had happened. They found her lower jawbone and yellow shorts. The judge didnt remember the circumstances and the lawyers for each side pointed fingers at one another. Those footnotes helped me sleep at night. Its damning circumstantial evidence linking Ackroyd to the deaths of these two women, Melissa and Sheila. Serial Killer John Arthur Ackroyd was a true monster. He struggles to breathe and its clear he takes time to move around. www.opendialoguemediations.com. The restive pair quickly grew bored and wanted their boyfriends to pick them up. Shed need evidence so police could find him later. The watch played a key role in helping to pin down when she was killed. Even before hunters had stumbled upon the teens remains, Ackroyd told a friend: They are assuming its me.. 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. It was a sensational crime that remains unsolved. This United States biographical article related to crime is a stub. Shed gone around town hanging missing posters but hadnt called police. Melissas mother died, too. Dave, Beth and I spent a lot of time deep in the woods where these women were assaulted, killed and abandoned. Why? Its also a newspaper story, not a book. Some of the most important sources never appear in the print component of this project. She went missing in 1990 12 years after Kayes killing and just down the highway. He offered no explanation. The two investigators crowded Bensons office with more whiteboards, scribbling fine points from each case. He appeared to become sexually aroused when shown a pair of pants that police had found in the woods and initially suspected belonged to Rachanda. Did you have to listen to them to be able to write that sentence? Google says its about a half-hour to Sisters, the nearest town where the family would have bought groceries. The murder trial made headlines around the state. The investigators sifted through the evidence collected from the woods where hunters came across Melissa and Sheilas bodies. The Question and Answer section for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. They simply felt they had enough. Seemed like the most hopeful note on which to end a series that didnt offer much light. What was the justification to go ahead and use them in a family newspaper?. Once in a while, Bart Swanson makes his way to the isolated logging road where Sheilas body was found just feet from her friend, Melissa Sanders. But none of these seemed to work. Kayes husband Noel remarried. Later that night, Marlene and her husband argued when he said he wanted to head off with a couple of friends. How odd, they thought. Biography. It was a great detail that I needed to work into the story. Time had fogged her memory, but on one point she was clear: The men ordered her to lie if police asked where they were that morning. Kindle Edition. Her description provided a distinct sense of place. When he got home, I explained the purpose of our visit, what the series would report and how it would include details about his wifes killing that would be upsetting. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. It was a real weight. She cried as she told one of them that she was terrified of returning to the junction alone. When the dispatcher asked why she hadnt called sooner, Linda said she assumed she had to wait 24 hours to report a missing person. He saw another highway worker driving through Camp Sherman that morning. Span of crimes. 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. You aim to anticipate the next question theyll have. The trackers noticed two sets of footprints preserved in the frozen ground. These are important stories to be told, he wrote. You use just 67 words to effectively condense the details of a crime that must have been full of detail. The lead prosecutor has a formidable memory and kept meticulous notes that were part of the case file. It was on one of them that hed raped Marlene Gabrielsen a year before Kaye Turner disappeared. He sliced off her boots and her underwear and threw her to the ground. Mystery still shrouds much of what happened during Ackroyds final encounters with his victims, and thats not likely to change. Actually, the beginning and the ending were the most rewritten parts of the series, as we knew they would be. [1] He married Linda Pickle in the mid-1980s. The project won the integrated storytelling award from the national Society of Features Journalism, while The National Womens Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation awarded it the National Journalism Impact Award. They were there because they were investigating the killing of Kaye Turner, the woman who is the subject of Day 2. Interviews with Rachanda Pickles brother, Byron, and one of her childhood friends. It was a single handwritten sentence. I also was liberated by knowing the companion photos and video would fill in many of the details in a different way. Why? I had to gut him out.. Why did you go to this trouble? . It was produced by senior staff writer Noelle Crombie, videographer Dave Killen and photographer Beth Nakamura, who worked side-by-side for nearly two years an unusual arrangement given the buyouts and layoffs that have hollowed out Americas newsrooms, including those in Oregon. Ackroyd was one of many leads they pursued. I was able to reconstruct this scene based on a detailed interview with Marvin Laront, Was the use of such sickening details debated before the story ran? How did you locate her? Kaye headed out alone, her feet pounding a two-lane camp road tinged red from volcanic ash. Ackroyd shuffled into the courtroom, where Byron sat in the gallery clutching a photograph of his sister. There was nothing in the record that showed where this request came from or why it had been sought. She recalled how Marlene had arrived at her house, sobbing, saying something terrible had happened. 1977-1992. There was so much information to move through. Did the girl ask you to pull over and have some fun?. Their deaths exposed Ackroyd as a serial killer and raised the possibility of other killings. 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? 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? Find books like John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer: A collection of True Crime from the world's largest community of readers. 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. How did you locate her? A thought skittered Detectives moved on. During his school years, he was a loner who was bullied. I have a baby thats not even a year old, she pleaded. Sinister Sunday topic about serial killer John Arthur Ackroyd, who committed his crimes along Highway 20 in Oregon between 1978 - 1992. This is a crucial moment where Ackroyd is confronted with one of these crimes, in this case Rachandas disappearance. Snow worked the phones, digging up numbers for highway workers, many of them long retired. He had an older and younger sister. I knew from the time Id spent with her that shes a strong person, and Day 1 of this series didnt capture that. I made paper copies of everything. My editors, Therese Bottomly and Margaret Haberman, told me over and over to think about scenes and to identify cliffhangers. Roger Beck was also found guilty in the murder of Kaye Turner at a separate trial. Weeks after the teens disappeared, Ackroyd was finally arrested for Kayes murder and booked into the Jefferson County jail in Madras. What lay behind this approach? How can you say with certainty that he would have heard the river? 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. Marlene suspects it was rooted in their bias against Native Americans. Investigators suspicions deepened as his story began to shift. Why the shift? Did you have to listen to them to be able to write that sentence? They noted in their report how the original officers had failed to pursue the rape case even though physical evidence corroborated Marlenes account. It took 14 years to . The last time the two saw each other, Rachanda was in the backseat of a Chevy Blazer headed home. We encourage you to research and examine these . Oh, I think you do, Harmon said softly. Eventually, the investigation stalled. To some, she seemed lost, almost invisible. My footnotes for this passage: Oregonian interview with Byron Pickle: They had paddles. John Arthur Ackroyd (October 3, 1949 - December 30, 2016) . There was something really hinky about it. Months later, the highway worker led police to the wooded area where scraps of her clothing and her jawbone were found. Date of Interment 21/Jan/1929, Temuka Cemetery, Section B, Block 5, Plot 335 MI. But its worth noting that it took many years for this particular serendipity to play out. Did she feel shed been raped? Goodreads members who liked. John Ackroyd ended up dying in prison in 2016. He claimed she turned down his invite . I spoke with his coworkers and friends. Prosecutors said she also had been raped. The focus seemed wrong. Was the passage longer and, if so, how did you revise it? I moved my desk next to Daves. She invited us in and we waited for Noel to return from running an errand. Then Ackroyds teenage stepdaughter disappeared and a new group of investigators reopened Kayes case. She said he threatened to do to me exactly what they did to Kaye Turner.. Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. When I outlined each days story, I focused on cliffhangers, kickers and which scenes could propel the narrative. Why did you decide to use Benson and Snow as a vehicle to transmit all this background? A few days later, I received a handwritten letter from Noel. Kaye had been an avid runner with deep ties to Eugene, where she worked as a manager at a local public health agency. We spent time with Marlene, the lone survivor. Ackroyd was jailed in 1993 for a 1978 . Then one finally offered: Try a woman who worked at the Sweet Home shop back then. Later, the men told her that theyd mistaken Kaye for a deer and fatally shot her. It was dark, around midnight. Why do you suppose that was the case? [5] The couple ate; then they had sex, significant because they almost never did. He runs in Kayes memory every Christmas Eve. You shift now to the killer. It was so essential to the chronology that the cash-strapped county that tried Ackroyd years later flew in a Timex exec from the East Coast to testify about the watch and its timekeeping. st thomas the apostle catholic church mass schedule Its got humanity and poignancy but it also lets readers know that ultimately some questions about the Turner murder were never answered. He got creative: What if cops and prison officials arranged for Ackroyd to share a Christmas or Thanksgiving meal with his family on the outside? She read some drafts early on. He didnt respond. The day after Christmas, experienced trackers whod joined the search made a disturbing discovery in a clearing near the area where Ackroyd saw Kaye. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive I think the local DA wanted to take another look at this cluster of unsolved cases involving young women, and Melissa and Sheila were among them. The dialogue and scene-setting details how Ackroyd tapped his leg with his knife, for instance came from interviews with Marlene. That late summer day, Ackroyd headed straight for Weston. Her head slammed into the door frame. Was there ever a concern about libeling Ackroyd before he died and rendered the question moot? The sheriff declined to comment last year and has since retired. How were you able to describe the dispatcher as bewildered? 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. It was the day before Christmas. I wanted the reader to feel rooted in that time and place. The two had history that extended to childhood. As investigators scoured the woods for clues, a state police trooper rested against a tree. If I put 50 dollars on a gamble that there wasnt punishment in a week I would lose that 50 dollars. When John snapped, it was scary. Their childhoods had been nightmarish under Ackroyds roof. 25 November 2021. What happened?. Sometimes they would drive away and turn back to get her. The home showed no signs of foul play. This is a such a powerful, almost poetic detail. Ackroyd was raised in the small logging town of Sweet Home, Oregon. Noelle Crombie knows that. It lets the reader know that this could be an important turning point in the story. He was based in Santiam Junction, about 25 miles from Camp Sherman, and said hed gotten off work at 6:30 a.m. A while later, he drove through the camp, planning to hunt coyotes. Here is the . Most of what I came up with centered on Ackroyd. He took out an envelope of old photos of Ackroyd, his pickups and Santiam Junction all from the original police file. If you would like to . Anyone who is reporter, you said, knows that a good editor is hard to come by. The sheriff declined to comment last year and has since retired. Their bodies were found off a logging spur. He was convicted of a sex crime in Minnesota, served seven months in prison, and moved to California. Later, Ackroyd would drive back roads, shooting squirrels and cutting off their tails. Why bother? What was your source for this description of Ackroyds temper? This post is a long one, everyone. Beth Nakamura / The Oregonian/OregonLive. It is . Pretty much all the details of the attacks and deaths are sickening in the series. That meant he was on the road unusually late. The story, photos and documentary took home five Northwest Regional Emmys, the Bruce Baer Award for Oregons best investigative reporting, and was a finalist for the Scripps Howard multimedia journalism award. To read the story without annotations, click the Hide all annotations button, which youll find just below the social media buttons in the top right-hand menu, or at the top of your mobile screen. When John Arthur Ackroyd was born on 18 March 1902, in Bradford St James, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, his father, George Ackroyd, was 26 and his mother, Annie Sharp, was 25. I spoke with his coworkers and friends. Christmas presents Noel bought for his wife were wrapped and in the car. 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 can hear him on the recording that the detective made. What the heck happened to you? Laront asked. He was caught trying to steal equipment and supplies. Again, he didnt respond. His friends became sick at the sight and left. But as we approached publication, Therese (Bottomly) said I needed to connect with Noel. But they knew Ackroyd was a killer. A cop once mentioned to me that Ackroyd always had a bunch of these candies in his pocket and would pop them into his mouth during interrogations. Laront remembered the night when a bloodied Ackroyd came into the shop. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Seven months after it ran, Crombie continues to receive emails and letters from readers grateful that these forgotten women have been remembered. The interview sputtered to a halt. The sisters knew why she was afraid. One man committed all the crimes and he is held responsible for the first time here. Thats when it got broken, over her rear. I wasnt sure what to call it. Buy John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton at Mighty Ape Australia. Noel Turner drove through Camp Sherman to look for his wife. How do we create a person's profile? Unsatisfying because he pleaded no contest but his sentence was suspended as part of the plea so he was never formally convicted and his plea deal didnt require him to reveal what hed done with Rachanda. List of serial killers in the United States, "Ghosts of Highway 20: Marlene Gabrielsen", "Inmate convicted in notorious Christmas jogger murder found dead in cell", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Arthur_Ackroyd&oldid=1131847328, This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 01:20. We chose to go with the legacy of the investigation. Did you have a knife in your hand when you had sex? Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake, Wilkie Collins, Thomas More and, most recently, Charlie Chaplin. Though Ackroyd offered their mother stability, the teens dreamed of the day they could leave home for good. She listened to pop stars Debbie Gibson and Wilson Phillips in her bedroom and teased her brother, who was her protector and playground companion. The grand jury returned an indictment on a single count: murder. It doesnt conclude with a dramatic trial in a packed courtroom. John Arthur Ackroyd was an American murderer and may have been a serial killer. 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. Despite having a rape kit showing evidence of the assault, her story was disbelieved by authorities. Her mother noticed the girls hairbrush, makeup and earrings were still there. Benson made a four-hour trek to a courthouse three counties away, where a metal filing cabinet held Kaye Turners case. A lawyer from central Oregon heard the cases had been reopened and called with a suggestion: Take a look at an old highway worker named John Ackroyd. It was so essential to the chronology that the cash-strapped county that tried Ackroyd years later flew in a Timex exec from the East Coast to testify about the watch and its timekeeping. US Highway 20, 1976-1992. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive. And then there was Ackroyds eerie talk of hunting. So I went back to Marlene and slow-walked her through her preparations for going out that night. I can hear her bafflement on the 911 audio, which Ive listened to over and over. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Byron recalled regular beatings. Ackroyds low libido was the source of such open conflict that Lindas teenage son, Byron, knew of their troubles. She vanished on July 10, while Linda was at work; Ackroyd took the day off, and was the last person to see the teen alive. The girl, 13 years old, had never been found. They kept their exasperation in check, rarely raising their voices as they combed fine details for any new revelation. What sources did you rely on to reconstruct the events of your trial? I wanted to show that at this point Ackroyd was a very sick man. For instance, Ackroyd told police he drove to his mothers house after raping Marlene. sat and waited to hear his fate. She answered right away and was willing to tell me about her experience so the three of us headed to Salem to interview her. Yes! His parents worked as a maintenance man and as an office worker at the police department. Ackroyd heaved his body out of the chair. Over the course of hours of interviews with The Oregonian/OregonLive, she unburdened herself of every ugly detail. The annotated version that ran online was a much shorter version of my own footnoted drafts of this story. And, most significantly, the teens friends confirmed what investigators had long suspected: Ackroyd had been sexually abusing the girl before she vanished. The two friends had gone camping with Melissas family at Beverly Beach State Park, a windswept strand of sand and headlands on the central Oregon coast. Some suspect he was but no evidence links him to these cases. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. He said he returned home to find his stepdaughter under a blanket on the couch. Google says its about a half-hour to Sisters, the nearest town where the family would have bought groceries. Ackroyd, an opportunist who preyed on women, had worked for more than a decade as a state mechanic along the last 170 miles of Highway 20 from the Cascade foothills to the coast. Call the police, Marlene said. Melissa and Sheila had waited until dawn to leave the familys campsite. So instead of hundreds of footnotes, we ran about 150 in a separate version of the story that also links to original source material. They were there because they were investigating the killing of Kaye Turner, the woman who is the subject of Day 2. We encourage you to research and examine . Ackroyd was born on October 3, 1949, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. If police had believed her, she might have been his last. A hunter would likely overlook the bits of cloth and bone as nothing more than trash and animal carcasses. The Turners lived in Eugene, where Kaye, 35, had worked at Planned Parenthood and then as a manager at a local public health agency. One of the victims, Terri Jentz, wrote a book about what happened and her search for her assailant. She asked if she could sleep over. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers London- The Biography and Thames- Sacred River as well as biographies of Ezra Pound, T.S. The larger person had dragged the smaller person away. The extraordinary arrangement meant Ackroyd would die in prison.
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