His wife, Pam, said the two men were around the trailer for most of the morning, which helped give Ackroyd an alibi. So Dave and I drove a couple hours south to the Turner home Noel had remarried in the years after Kayes death and knocked on the door. She didnt talk much about what had happened. Our overarching purpose was to hold their rapist/killer accountable in public for the first time. I had his work, schooling and military records. Serial Killers - Wickedness It was scary. They grew up in small towns about 90 minutes inland on Highway 20 and shared a history infused with drugs and alcohol. Why after two decades? For a moment, she considered how lucky she had been to escape unharmed. Kaye Turner's killing became a faded memory. The others: Did you force her to have sex at knifepoint? If you had to characterize the way the system worked in the Rachanda Pickle case, what words would you use? The district attorney asked Byron if he supported a plea deal or if he wanted Ackroyd to stand trial. [4] Ackroyd's step-daughter Rachanda Pickle went missing in 1990. Ackroyd returned to the periphery. In a 7,000-word series, its important at the start to clearly establish who and what readers will encounter as they stay with an unfolding narrative. It turned out that Jane Morris had an earlier brush with Ackroyd as well, months before Kaye went missing. At first, shes just taking the info from Linda Ackroyd. PDF Ghosts of Highway 20 - oregonlive The trackers noticed two sets of footprints preserved in the frozen ground. John Arthur Ackroyd 1902-1997 - Ancestry They assumed the two had gotten a ride from friends. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. She handed police a brown paper bag with clothes Marlene wore on the night of the attack. At one point before the trials, investigators had returned to Camp Sherman to re-enact theories of what had happened. Hello, Sign in. 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. A lone truck makes its way along Highway 20 at dusk. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison John Arthur Ackroyd - Episode podcast teratas How much was revision involved in accomplishing this? The medical examiner speculated that the young women had been strangled, but the condition of their remains made it difficult to determine a cause of death for either. We talked about this stuff pretty much nonstop at work and when we hung out together outside of work. The hearing lasted about seven minutes. Her calendar at work noted recent liaisons with the men. Beth Nakamura/ The Oregonian/OregonLive. Amazon.com: Agatha Christie: Books, Biography, Blog The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Questions and Answers. A used rivet was discovered near her body. It seemed like decent shorthand for conveying the remoteness of this area. It was a sensational crime that remains unsolved. Parts of Melissas body were gone, probably dragged away by animals. John Arthur Ackroyd (October 3, 1949 - December 30, 2016) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. Why do you suppose that was the case? Rachandas brother, Byron, still sees her so clearly, her sweet features framed by brown hair. john arthur ackroyd childhood john arthur ackroyd childhood In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. The district attorney delivered his decision on whether to prosecute. 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. The familys kittens were curled up on the girls lap, he said. Call the police, Marlene said. Still, police seemed skeptical. Sheila Swanson was 19 and from nearby Lebanon. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results John Arthur Ackroyd (1892 - 1953) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. What allowed you to finally crack open a story that had been lost for 40 years? John Arthur Ackroyd - Wikiwand Despite all the tantalizing coincidences and Ackroyds apparent eagerness to place himself at the scene of the crime, investigators could find no physical evidence definitively linking him to the killing. (Getty Images) If you've been following the five-part story of John Ackroyd, its conclusion might leave you hanging. Bill Hanlon, the district attorney in Jefferson County, wasnt surprised when the call came from a prosecutor in Linn County, where Ackroyd lived. Ackroyd's step-daughter Rachanda Pickle went missing in 1990. Their stories have another connection: One man is linked to all five crimes. And Marlene was the victim of police malpractice, which had lethal consequences. What was your reaction when you discovered it? The two spent evenings at a Sharis restaurant along Highway 20, where they hung around with other teens and locals, including a state mechanic named John Ackroyd. Margaret (Haberman) agreed and suggested that we pare them down to a manageable number for publication. . An ominous lead. Organization, extensive footnoting and a decent system for records that involved seven three-ring binders helped me keep it all straight. She saw it as a way of letting readers know how much work went into this series. The men were told to drop it. We felt and processed their profound grief. The project was a true collaboration. No evidence, physical or otherwise, ever linked Ackroyd to any of them, but their timing and proximity to Highway 20 prompted investigators to wonder if the mechanic had a hand in them. 1977-1992. 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 . Load the dishwasher. . You aim to anticipate the next question theyll have. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. Ackroyd was born on October 3, 1949, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I wanted to absorb all of the material I had collected and then tell the story with authority. So you dont know where shes at, he asked. A report from the trial in the Bend (OR) Bulletin. Was it easy to get him to talk to you? I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. How did it affect you and your colleagues? This section could perhaps have served as a nut graf, placed much higher in the story. The focus seemed wrong. Yet neither man confessed to police. What are the chances that two serial killers were active during the same time and place? Most of the narrative was constructed looking back. I wanted the story to be easy on the reader. 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. We talked all along about how graphic to be. She thinks those factors played a role in their handling of the investigation. Theyd noticed that Ackroyds truck was still parked outside and his work rig wasnt there. Date of Interment 21/Jan/1929, Temuka Cemetery, Section B, Block 5, Plot 335 MI. The project was a true collaboration. She invited us in and we waited for Noel to return from running an errand. A father himself now, Byron gets a catch in his voice when he talks about it. I tried to give quick references to time to guide without distracting the reader. 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. Structurally, what was your intention? The story also features an annotated version using footnotes identifying all your sources? The watch played a key role in helping to pin down when she was killed. This scene has a cinematic quality cops gathering on an empty road days before Christmas reenacting an abduction using a woman deputy and then deciding to give the story their own happy ending. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. Why did you go to this trouble? Others told the investigators that Ackroyd started hanging around the Sharis in Lebanon after he met the teens. Hed stopped by a half-dozen times since Kaye had gone missing. 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. I think I just ran him through one of our databases. Why? On one of our reporting trips along Highway 20, I spent the ride focused on the road, what he would have seen from his truck. I wanted to pick up the watch detail again because we first saw Kaye wearing the watch as she heads on a run and now the watch is a detail in her killing. Were other approaches considered? Police photos showed her watch in the woods near where her partial remains were found. Did you and your colleagues ever worry whether readers would care about cases that happened so many years before? The language of the story is spare and lean. It was there that witnesses heard Ackroyd try to lure Melissa and Sheila to a party he said hed planned to host in Newport just down the road from where they would be camping. He enlisted in the Army after having been accused of felony theft. I have the audio of this conversation. So here: Whos responsible for this carnage? It was my way of acknowledging to the reader that this has been an epic tale that wont have a Hollywood ending. Early on in the project videographer Dave Killen and photographer Beth Nakamura were riding together on Highway 20 on one of our many reporting trips. How and why did you settle on that approach? How were you able to describe the dispatcher as bewildered? She wanted to make sure he knew what was coming. The beginning because you have to engage and explain but not overpromise, all the while getting the tone right. 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. Though investigators were certain he was behind her disappearance, they couldnt prove it. 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. Something, likely a struggle, had knocked out the stem, stopping the watch. Burly and barrel-chested, Ackroyd favored jeans and blue work shirts from the local Sears. A spare style is my natural tendency. You end this section by withholding what happened with the grand jury. He eluded police even as their suspicions about him deepened. Rachanda declined, citing the chores her mother expected her to finish, he said. It was the first time shed seen him since that summer morning. Like Kayes watch and her hair in the birds nest, this Fireball detail is one I knew I would use. You mentioned the watch earlier. So instead of hundreds of footnotes, we ran about 150 in a separate version of the story that also links to original source material. Once, when a clock fell off a shelf, he beat her with a homemade paddle. Ending with her in this way allowed me to highlight her resilience. We bounced ideas off each other and checked facts. Im not sure what the reader gains from reading a detailed description of a rape. 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. Occasionally, Ackroyd would reach for one of the Fireball candies he carried in his pocket. He was using a paddle at that time. Hopefully for many of you, to bring back some fond memories and get your foot tapping. During his school years, he was a loner who was bullied. Did you have any models in mind, any that you studied before or as you were writing? So I shifted to the women he encountered. Or go back to the people left behind, particularly Marlene, who had lived to tell her story and felt heard for the first time. It was a great detail that I needed to work into the story. Sheila often slept away from home but stayed in touch with her mother. John | Facts, Reign, Legacy, Family Tree, & Magna Carta I asked her about his clothing. It is a very convoluted story with a blizzard of facts, dates, people, incidents, etc. At the end, we took questions from the audience and I introduced Marlene. Beck and his wife lived in a trailer not far from Camp Sherman, where Kaye had disappeared. For a long time, the lead was a scene from his cell immediately after his death. If police had believed her, she might have been his last. She invited us in and we waited for Noel to return from running an errand. He mentioned it only after a pair of state police troopers approached him a couple of weeks later. Police and court records. I looked for ways to make that as seamless as possible. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Kelley Benham French read one of those footnoted drafts and suggested that we publish them all. Although many versions exist of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir . Ackroyd had indeed come across Kaye but didnt go to police, even though he saw posters with her picture at the nearby Santiam Junction highway compound, where he lived. This is a messy story that jumps around in time. She went missing in 1990 12 years after Kayes killing and just down the highway. I was riding in another car with a couple of investigators. When it snapped, he smacked her repeatedly with his open hand. How do we create a person's profile? Our Apps. Both were present for almost every interview. Beautiful scenery but what this man did was not beautiful in any sense. They wrote down his habit of taking time off around the disappearances, as hed done with Kaye and Rachanda. He claimed he invited her to join him on a drive to photograph deer on back roads near the junction. It seemed like decent shorthand for conveying the remoteness of this area. He showed signs of a disturbed mind. He married a local woman named Linda and they lived with her young kids, Byron and Rachanda. I wasnt sure what to call it. Why? Published March 23, 2020. The judge didnt remember the circumstances and the lawyers for each side pointed fingers at one another. 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. We encourage you to research and examine these . Back then, if traffic was light and his window was rolled down, Ackroyd would have heard the South Santiam River rushing alongside the highway as he headed west out of Sweet Home. He hadnt told his wife the full story of Rachandas life and how he remained tormented that he hadnt hugged his kid sister the last time he saw her. "I remember it was beautiful because it was all green and little flowers blooming, little tiny ones. Did you use an outline or timeline to keep things straight in this convoluted case? Her case remained unsolved. The men heard a truck pull into the yard. Two years later, at age 14, she married Beck. The couple had since divorced and Pam had moved to California. In class, she counted down the minutes, a sense of dread rising as the end of the school day approached. There were days when we were depleted after doing interviews or looking at these files and crime scene photos. Then theres Ackroyds first known victim. Another time, they snuck her into their bedroom closet. My footnotes for this passage: Oregonian interview with Byron Pickle: They had paddles. Crombie was just wrapping up a four-year stint on the cannabis beat she had created when Bottomly called her into her office and told her about the case. Son: Donald Ackroyd was born on 06/25/1971. But its worth noting that it took many years for this particular serendipity to play out. We were in the car a lot, a lot of very long road trips. In your Emmy acceptance speech, you singled out your editor, Margaret Haberman. 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. Would he give up the body? That friend was Roger Dale Beck. Shed be back in an hour, in time for breakfast. I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. He took out an envelope of old photos of Ackroyd, his pickups and Santiam Junction all from the original police file. How were you able to describe his breathing? Its definitely hard to read but written, I hope its seen, with deliberation and circumspection. His high school diploma indicated that he had been a "special education" student. Ackroyd would recycle the same stories. It was the kind of menial task you might give a rookie detective. Your lead is a classic roundup that focuses on several people or events. On Christmas Eve morning, Ackroyd showed up at the house. Yes, we saw Highway 20 as its own theme and character. Local cops tracked down Sheilas mother. He offered no explanation. Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders were murdered in 1992, in Lincoln County, Oregon. It was moving and unexpected. The Oregonian newspaper and others have alleged that Ackroyd was involved in the murder of several more women. We felt and processed their profound grief. Read Full Profile. Were other approaches considered? What was your source and why did you use it when so many other times you chose to paraphrase speech? In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison John Arthur Ackroyd - Top podcast episodes The girls mother eventually moved to California and remarried. Another Oregon courthouse provided the backdrop for Ackroyds second prosecution. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive. 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. How did you decide on these and did they form part of the narrative strategy? Even today parts of the road are so narrow and quiet the highway has the feel of a country lane. Maybe they just walked in, seen an opportunity and grasped at it.. She woke to find his fingers squeezed tight around her legs as he dragged her out of the truck. Lucinda Williams The Ghosts of Highway 20, One of the victims, Terri Jentz, wrote a book. And to explain why this story has currency and impact today. I wanted the reader to feel rooted in that time and place. Faryion Wardrip. She clearly is trying to process why a mother would wait so long to report that her child has disappeared from a remote highway compound. "This . After the rape, Ackroyd slapped the knife against his grimy jeans held up by orange suspenders. What was the justification to go ahead and use them in a family newspaper?. A father himself now, Byron gets a catch in his voice when he talks about it. At the beginning of my reporting, I wrote a letter to Noel Turner, the husband of Kaye Turner who had disappeared on the Christmastime run. What lay behind that decision? I knew those important voices would have their say in the video so it liberated me to write with more authority. I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. It was great, Ackroyd would later tell detectives. 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.