Rachanda disappeared on July 10, 1990. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. Why did you go to this trouble? Harmon tried to nudge Ackroyd. Yet neither man confessed to police. . John Arthur Ackroyd was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. 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. And this guy basically got away with it.. Looking for John Ackroyd online? carteret county, nc arrests This is the area where Marlene Gabrielsen was raped off Highway 20 by John Ackroyd. The lead prosecutor has a formidable memory and kept meticulous notes that were part of the case file. Dave worked the drone and Beth wandered off alone to look for a way to capture what Marlene saw that early morning 40 years ago. Just as before, police turned up no physical evidence linking him to Melissa and Sheila. It moved around a bit until it landed here. In the courtroom, she turned to face Ackroyd. Its definitely hard to read but written, I hope its seen, with deliberation and circumspection. Even with the verdict, investigators would never really know what unfolded the morning Kaye died. It now appears their killer was the same man. But what if the case turned on that clue? The girls mother eventually moved to California and remarried. Its ugly to describe and imagine these killings. In other scenes, Beck grabbed her as Ackroyd looked on. I wanted the reader to hear Ackroyds reaction when confronted with the detectives suspicions. She said her son was shy around women. That may have also played a role in their response. It was late spring. View John Ackroyd results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. I asked my colleagues if they thought readers would know about Fireballs and the consensus was yes. I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. Interviews with Rachanda Pickles brother, Byron, and one of her childhood friends. Published March 23, 2020. 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. GHOSTS OF HIGHWAY 20 - oregonlive Kaye had been an avid runner with deep ties to Eugene, where she worked as a manager at a local public health agency. The judge didnt remember the circumstances and the lawyers for each side pointed fingers at one another. 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. John Arthur Ackroyd, 1902 - 1997. Did you discover Jane Morris in the trial transcript? Structurally, why did you decide to break here for a biography of Ackroyd? And a lot of time in the woods together and that bonded us to one another. I sought to write a driving narrative that relied on detail, dialogue and description with a bedrock of reporting and research. By then, The Oregonian/OregonLive also was investigating Ackroyd. I wanted to show that at this point Ackroyd was a very sick man. The sheriff declined to comment last year and has since retired. [4] Ackroyd's step-daughter Rachanda Pickle went missing in 1990. How did you decide which characters to include in the epilogue? She thinks those factors played a role in their handling of the investigation. At one point, Kelley Benham French was a consultant on the series. Ackroyd was incarcerated in Oregon State Penitentiary. Now Kaye, Rachanda, Melissa and Sheila are dead. It was Marlene Gabrielsens first night away from her baby girl. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. What was your reaction when you discovered it? Hed stopped by a half-dozen times since Kaye had gone missing. . She hadnt been out long when a state highway worker named Thomas Hanna spotted her, running south, alone. How do we create a person's profile? I spent considerable time trying to answer this very question. John Ackroyd - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages He knew how to navigate the hills and hairpin turns during winter, when fierce storms swept through the Cascades. His excuse for his bloody arms and hands around the time Melissa and Sheila vanished was that hed just gutted a roadkill deer. We encountered a lot of resistance from sources in the county that investigated the disappearance of Ackroyds stepdaughter. Kids. This story is complicated and confusing. 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. The Turners lived in Eugene, where Kaye, 35, had worked at Planned Parenthood and then as a manager at a local public health agency. That friend was Roger Dale Beck. Im not sure what the reader gains from reading a detailed description of a rape. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? I found her through Nexis, I think. Didnt do anything to Channy? the cop pressed. 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. Her sneakers and socks were still on her feet. Wasnt it strange that he was the last person to see Kaye and Rachanda alive? We worried about this constantly. It was a great detail that I needed to work into the story. Police photos showed her watch in the woods near where her partial remains were found. Linda Ackroyd, who now goes by the last name Monville, says she doesnt know if Ackroyd molested her daughter. The men were told to drop it. I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. How could they forget? After leaving drama school in Birmingham in 1970, John worked for 10 years or so in repertory theatres all round England, playing dozens of roles. Yes, youre right. Plus, in an era of smartphones, a Timex wrist watch gives readers the sense that this crime happened in another era. She thinks those factors played a role in their handling of the investigation. Kayes husband Noel remarried. 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. Ackroyds grim speculation about the harm that had likely come to Rachanda echoed gory stories like the ones hed replay over and over in Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.. The men spent hours talking to Ackroyd. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results John Ackroyd (1850 - 1913) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. Kaye had been raped and shot, Beck told Pam. She wrote it down on a pack of cigarettes. His voice came through the speaker. Did you have to listen to them to be able to write that sentence? In 1986 he became the . Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Overseas, he was investigated for selling marijuana and going AWOL. . Show All. Bewildered by the explanation, the men watched as Ackroyd washed up. He was beset with chronic health problems and hadnt left his cell much. In our meetings early on, I filled every square inch of the board with dates, victims, themes, etc. The last time the two saw each other, Rachanda was in the backseat of a Chevy Blazer headed home. There were days when we were depleted after doing interviews or looking at these files and crime scene photos. The couple had since divorced and Pam had moved to California. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Marlene started this series and it seemed fitting to end with her. 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. Why did you decide to tell it in the omniscient third person as you do so much of the story? Unexplained Oregon: The Highway 20 Serial Killer on Apple Podcasts Help advance the Nieman Foundations mission to promote and elevate the standards of journalism by making a donation. John Arthur Ackroyd (October 3, 1949 - December 30, 2016) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. First: Marlene Gabrielsen, raped in 1977. The breadth of his crimes has never been revealed until now. No, what do you think I am? Ackroyd said, his voice rising in rare agitation. Highway worker after highway worker said they werent there that night, they couldnt vouch that it had happened. Ghosts of Highway 20, Episode 5 - ACKROYD. I also wanted to touch on the idea that this story served as a form of justice for Marlene. A sadistic killer goes around killing people, taking girls off somewhere? Investigators suspicions deepened as his story began to shift. Harmon wondered if time had softened the old highway worker. Her father waited a few more days before calling police, then the FBI. He said he returned home to find his stepdaughter under a blanket on the couch. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. It took weeks the woman had changed her name since the early 1990s but she remembered the men and their names. This time, the DA and the cops who believed Ackroyd had gotten away with Kaye Turners killing were determined to get the highway worker off the street for good. John Arthur Ackroyd was born on month day 1902, at birth place, to George Ackroyd and Annie Ackroyd (born Sharp). Actually, the beginning and the ending were the most rewritten parts of the series, as we knew they would be. Ackroyd was spotted there at least three times after they went missing. 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? A cinnamon candy? Did you assume readers would know what a Fireball is? Ghosts of Highway 20 Revisited: How Being a Self-educated Street Rachanda's stepfather, John Arthur Ackroyd, is the last person Escucha y descarga los episodios de Unresolved gratis Now, two years after Rachanda went missing without a trace from the family home, the young women who left a camping trip were dead Blogolitical Sean: November 2010 Rachanda Pickle's mother and stepfather waited 24 hours to report the girl's disappearance to 911 Rachanda . He thought she was pretty, he said, and noticed that shed begun to develop. Police at one point speculated that Melissas alleged theft of glassware from a local meth cook might have gotten them killed. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William Blake , Charles Dickens , T. S. Eliot , Charlie Chaplin and Sir Thomas More , he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards . Its not a transcript. 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. On one reporting trip to the Oregon Coast, I walked the campground and stood in the area where the women made their final call. I dont think we talked about that because he died so early in my reporting. Ackroyd was jailed in 1993 for a 1978 . 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. Theyd been dumped off the highway along Ackroyds route from the coast to Sweet Home. Amazon.com: Agatha Christie: Books, Biography, Blog The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Questions and Answers. Did you have to listen to them to be able to write that sentence? Annie was born on August 28 1876, in Ashfield Farnley Yorkshire. I made paper copies of everything. It felt clunky to me to stop and quote a source. Harmon kept the tone conversational as he directed Ackroyd back to Rachanda. Kaye and husband, Noel, had joined friends on a holiday getaway at Camp Sherman, a vacation and fly-fishing retreat along the pristine Metolius River off Highway 20 with a two-room school, country store and 200 year-round residents. Though they had grown apart in their marriage, he remembers Kaye with fondness. Something was tangled in the twigs and sticks. I was able to reconstruct this scene based on a detailed interview with Marvin Laront Sheilas parents had died, leaving her younger brother to carry on alone with his grief. You could win the lottery four or five times before something like that would happen, Salsbery said. Explore genealogy for Arthur Ackroyd born 1882 died 1929 New Zealand including research + children + more in the free family tree community. Local police didnt put much stock in the accuracy of the trackers findings. Uncategorized - True Crime But That's None of My Business Kayes gold Timex watch with the vinyl band was there, too. We were in the car a lot, a lot of very long road trips. I understood how painful it could be to have us revisit this traumatic time in his life so I respected his decision. Marlene Gabrielsen was raped by John Ackroyd in 1978. And then there was Ackroyds eerie talk of hunting. 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. You use just 67 words to effectively condense the details of a crime that must have been full of detail. She had two children, Rachanda and Byron. A thought skittered 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. An acquaintance told a detective how he once watched in horror as Ackroyd, then a young man, hacked up puppies using a machete, saying the dogs were his and nobody else could have them. In your Emmy acceptance speech, you singled out your editor, Margaret Haberman. Then a confession by a convicted murderer sidetracked detectives before they determined he was lying. I have to go. In our meetings early on, I filled every square inch of the board with dates, victims, themes, etc. It was the last time any cop talked to Ackroyd. Noelle Crombie knows that. Janes heart raced as she crouched over her handlebars and sped toward the nearby country store, listening for the sound of the truck behind her. How much was revision involved in accomplishing this? Some of the most important sources never appear in the print component of this project. Would is a conditional verb indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation. (en) dbo:birthDate: 1949-10-03 (xsd:date) dbo:birthPlace: dbr:Sweet_Home,_Oregon; dbr:Oregon; I wanted the story to be easy on the reader. He was willing to talk. These are important stories to be told, he wrote. This let us quickly introduce the five women we write about but also put them first in the mind of the reader. Eventually, the investigation stalled. Sometime after he moved, Ackroyd was in his truck with the daughter of an old friend. The prosecution is going to progress in this.. You aim to anticipate the next question theyll have. Hanna told police hed seen both the highway worker and the runner in Camp Sherman that morning. At the hospital, an officer noted scratches on Marlenes back. She went missing in 1990 12 years after Kayes killing and just down the highway. When it snapped, he smacked her repeatedly with his open hand. These are key characters in this story. Thats when Ackroyd picked up a woman from the side of the road, dragged her into the woods and raped her. Each of the multimedia elements in powerful in its own right. High in the lush canopy, he noticed a birds nest perched on a branch. I used a massive spreadsheet for reference. It made sense to make Highway 20 a central theme and to tell the story chronologically, using the highway as a guide. But none of these seemed to work. 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. 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 . What was your source for this description of Ackroyds temper? In that way, the story feels unresolved. G4E1 - Origins of Northern Soul & Disco - The Beginning I asked her about his clothing. Son: Donald Ackroyd was born on 06/25/1971. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. Ackroyd was abusive to both Byron and Rachanda. Too good to be true, Snow thought. Ackroyd has three brothers and one sister. He had an older and younger sister. The time and date stood still: 9:27 a.m. on Dec. 24. She talked about how it was late spring. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped off this same stretch of lonely road in rural Oregon, which winds through some of the Northwest's most spectacular scenery. A dozen or so work crews called the junction home. Ackroyd told police that Marlene had seduced him in the front seat of his dirty truck. I checked that with Byron, Rachandas brother. You felt a tremendous obligation to the victims and their loved ones in telling this story. Their stories have another connection: One man is linked to all five crimes. I hired a high school student to come in and Bates stamp them. 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. Harmon, the investigator who spent hours interviewing Ackroyd, was there, too. You shift now to the killer. Months later, the highway worker led police to the wooded area where scraps of her clothing and her jawbone were found. It was a real weight. 25 November 2021. It made sense to strip it down. Ending with her in this way allowed me to highlight her resilience. In 1992 he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. I moved my desk next to Daves. How do we create a person's profile? If you had to characterize the way the system worked in the Rachanda Pickle case, what words would you use? Four years after they started, Benson and Snow had strung together enough evidence to take the double murder to a grand jury. Most of your sentences are short and simple; subject-verb-object, short sentences, short paragraphs. Initially, he told police hed passed Kaye without stopping. I had his work, schooling and military records. Piecing Together the Story of an Oregon Serial Killer The murder trial made headlines around the state. Im in real trouble, he confided. It moved around a bit until it landed here. The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend (Penguin Classics Deluxe An ominous lead. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Would is a conditional verb indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation. Structurally, what was your intention? 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. The men heard a truck pull into the yard. She stepped into the sunshine, the frosty air heavy with the scent of ponderosa pine. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. He sliced off her boots and her underwear and threw her to the ground. You were able, one wrote, to give voice to so many people who have largely gone unheard (until now). They mingled with another set that belonged to what appeared to be a large man. Was the use of such sickening details debated before the story ran? The responsibility of speaking for Rachanda rested with her brother, Byron Pickle, then 37. They didnt hear from Ackroyd, who had decided not to testify. From the outside, he seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady We were smacked by paddles and a lot of people who are are like, Oh big deal, a paddle. No, there was paddles that were designed with holes drilled in them and stuff and they would brag about it helps cuts through the air and you get a harder spanking. Ackroyd was very predominant in discipline. John Arthur Ackroyd - Wikipedia Dave listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. 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. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped off this same stretch of lonely road in rural Oregon, which winds through some of the Northwest's most spectacular scenery. Rachanda was a good kid, helping around the house and taking care not to stray far. Within days of the discovery of Melissa and Sheilas bodies, police zeroed in once again on the highway worker. These are important stories to be told, he wrote. The television was on. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. I remember him spanking her over one of those old school windup alarm clocks and it got broke and he was trying to fix it in and stuff and him and mom were talking about it and they were both getting heatedmom said to line them up and spank them until (one confesses) They were getting ready to line us up. Armed with an ax or hatchet, he attacked the women, both students at Yale University. 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. Ackroyd shuffled into the courtroom, where Byron sat in the gallery clutching a photograph of his sister. The killer was dead. How and why did you settle on that approach? Its dramatic and I wanted to draw it out for the reader. She was nude. My editors, Therese Bottomly and Margaret Haberman, told me over and over to think about scenes and to identify cliffhangers. There were 300 people there and Marlene Gabrielsen came. Yes, we saw Highway 20 as its own theme and character. They wrote down his habit of taking time off around the disappearances, as hed done with Kaye and Rachanda. 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. Once, when a clock fell off a shelf, he beat her with a homemade paddle. The Oregon Department of Justice has additional information and resources for survivors of sexual violence. John Arthur Ackroyd was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton is available in these Why the shift? Ackroyd was in no mood to talk this time. Ackroyd was raised in the small logging town of Sweet Home, Oregon. My editors advised me at one point to look for ways to mix things up with more complex sentences and longer graphs. The story reaches its powerful chronological conclusion. And so the case reached a quiet end in the fall of 2013. What happened?. His arrest was imminent. Ran into a deer, Ackroyd said. ACKROYD John Arthur | Serial Killer Database Wiki | Fandom They found the other sneaker, mostly intact. How come he had all this blood on his hands?. The memory of an infamous crime, one year earlier, was still fresh in central Oregon. Why did Pam Ramirez lie when first interviewed by the cops? I used a massive spreadsheet for reference. The spring camping trip to Newport was supposed to mean time with family, but she and Sheila took off the first chance they got. Did you and your colleagues ever worry whether readers would care about cases that happened so many years before? How did you reconstruct the details included in this long section about Marlenes rape and the aftermath? How did you locate her? The style of the series is elliptical in that it leaves out information, such as dialogue, names of source and other details. One resembled the waffle soles of Kayes Nikes. 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 testing, unavailable at the time of her killing, showed shed been shot and stabbed. I wanted to absorb all of the material I had collected and then tell the story with authority. Its a testament to taking a second or third look with fresh eyes and newer forensic techniques at old crimes. We encourage you to research and examine . Peter Ackroyd - Wikipedia So I shifted to the women he encountered. But those relationships shifted over time. Hanna was returning to his place in Camp Sherman after working the night shift. I looked for ways to make that as seamless as possible. In a war with the French king Philip II, he lost Normandy and almost all his other possessions in France. The annotated version that ran online was a much shorter version of my own footnoted drafts of this story. He seemed to relish gruesome speculation about what harm had come to her. Sandy Turner, Noels wife, answered and greeted us warmly. They were restless and broke, living an itinerant existence, drinking too much and keeping dangerous company. She was patient as I drilled down into the particulars of what she wore, her hairstyle and what it was like to leave her baby girl behind for the night. He spent Christmas patrolling Camp Sherman, quietly marking Kayes disappearance decades earlier. Melissa and Sheila had waited until dawn to leave the familys campsite. Finding no sign of her, he panicked and called police. It was scary. Its definitely hard to read but written, I hope its seen, with deliberation and circumspection. On Christmas Eve morning, Ackroyd showed up at the house. For a moment, she considered how lucky she had been to escape unharmed. Seven months after it ran, Crombie continues to receive emails and letters from readers grateful that these forgotten women have been remembered. Where did it and the other information about Kayes run come from? Her breast had been punctured by a bullet, he said, and her throat was slashed. Was it important to use it here? They were thin slats of wood. 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. The teenagers had met six months earlier. She confided in two girls who were sisters. She once showed up at Sheilas with bruises on her face and asked if she could stay. In class, she counted down the minutes, a sense of dread rising as the end of the school day approached. Over the course of the investigation, he acted strangely. We talked to grieving loved ones. The details surrounding the assault are terrifying enough. In a separate call, his old coworker told the same story. In fact, when she didnt feel I was doing enough on the project, she made that clear. 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. Theirs is a cold-case mystery that began with a tip about a possible serial killer. They noted in their report how the original officers had failed to pursue the rape case even though physical evidence corroborated Marlenes account. For Kaye. 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.