The Molalla Forest Killer
by David Lohr
In the early morning hours of August 7, 1987,
serial-killer Dayton Leroy Rogers picked up his last prostitute victim,
26-year-old Jenny Smith. He drove her into the parking lot of a small business
complex in Clackamas County, a small suburb of Portland, Ore.
Rogers was known by prostitutes for his odd
behavior and bondage fetishes; it probably came as no surprise to Smith when he
asked her to remove her clothes and bound her hands with a restraint fashioned
from a shoe lace. He then began to cut her back and breasts with a knife. Smith
screamed in horror. Rogers then shoved the knife into her vagina and began to
stab her uncontrollably. Suddenly, the restraint gave way and Smith fell out
onto the pavement. Bleeding profusely from her wounds, she tried to escape.
Rogers quickly got out of the truck and grabbed her by the neck. He threw her to
the ground and continued to stab her over and over.
James Dahlke, who was in a Denny's parking lot
across the street, heard Smith scream. He motioned to another man in the parking
to go with him to check out the commotion. By the time they were able to locate
the source of the screams, Rogers was on top of Smith, between her legs and
appearing to have sex with her.
"What do you think you are doing?"
asked Dahlke.
Rogers got up and ran around the west side of the
building. When Dahlke looked down at Smith he saw blood gushing out of a hole in
her neck and various wounds in her abdomen. She did not appear to be conscious.
A passerby rushed over and began administering CPR. Richard Bergio, the man in
the parking lot with Dahlke, saw Rogers get into a pick-up truck and speed away.
Bergio ran to his own vehicle and began to chase the blue Nissan pick-up truck.
Just outside the city limits, Bergio was able to get close enough to make out
the license plate number on the truck. He wrote the number down and hurried back
to the scene of the crime.
Smith was rushed to the emergency room at Emanuel
Hospital, where she later died in surgery.
Bergio reported to investigators the license
plate number and gave a description of the assailant. The vehicle was registered
to Dayton Leroy Rogers, who lived in a mobile home at 10518 South Hinds Road in
Camby (a small town south of Portland).
Police questioned Rogers at his place of
business, read him his rights, and then arrested him. After Rogers was booked,
investigators confiscated his clothes and possessions, and impounded his vehicle
for processing.
At the crime scene, police discovered a knife
lying beneath some bushes. Police quickly executed a search warrant for Rogers's
mobile home and business. They confiscated hair, clothing, a hacksaw, and
knives. Inside of his truck, police found reddish brown stains. Lab tests showed
the stains to be human blood, but not the blood of either Smith or Rogers.
On Aug. 31, 1987, Everett Banyard was hunting in
the Molalla Forest when he discovered a decomposed body hidden under some brush.
In going over the crime scene, detectives soon discovered six more bodies,
dumped throughout the wooded area. Autopsies revealed that all seven were
female, and that each had been bound, tortured, and had died as a result of
multiple stab wounds. All seven of the woman had been murdered with the same
type of knife.
One of the knives found at the scene matched the
one Rogers had used to kill Smith.
The bodies were soon identified as that of
23-year-old Lisa Marie Mock, 26-year-old Maureen Ann Hodges, 35-old Christine
Lotus Adams, 20- year-old Cynthia Devore, 26-year-old Nondace Cervantes, and
16-year-old Riatha Gyles. All of the victims were known prostitutes. The seventh
body has never been identified.
A Clackamas Grand Jury indicted Rogers on Oct. 7,
1987, on charges of aggravated murder in connection with Smith's murder.
Prosecutors had decided to try Smith’s murder separate from the others in
order to give them more time to build their case for the other homicides and to
secure Rogers's incarnation. Rogers plead not guilty.
On Feb. 4, 1988 the trial began. Following two
weeks of testimony by investigators, pathologists and character witnesses,
Rogers was found guilty of Smith's murder on Feb. 20, 1988. Two weeks later he
was sentenced to serve life in prison.
Rogers was later indicted on the Molalla forest
killings. On May 4, 1988, after five weeks of testimony and six hours of
deliberation, the jury found him guilty of aggravated murder on all counts.
Rogers was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He resides on death row at
the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Ore.
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