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Highway 20 is an infamous highway route in the state of Oregon, United States, which witnessed a series of murders and disappearances from the 1970s to the 1990s. John Arthur Ackroyd, a construction highway worker working for the Oregon Department of Transportation, turned out to be the prime suspect behind the mysterious disappearances.
Disclaimer: This article contains details of r*pe, abuse, and murder. Reader's discretion is advised.
He was convicted of s*xual assault and became the prime suspect for at least five disappearances. Although authorities conducted extensive searches, the victims were not found until their skeletal remains were found. The entire story behind mysterious disappearances in Highway 20 is documented in the Crime Junkie podcast episode titled INFAMOUS: Highway 20. The official synopsis reads:
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"Over several decades, women and girls have encountered a monster whose full reign of terror might not even be fully known. He hunted his own backyard, the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, and there could be victims out there that have yet to be discovered."
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5 chilling details about the Crimes of Highway 20
1) John Ackroyd had r*ped Marlene Gabrielsen
As per Oregonian Live, in 1977, a young woman, Marlene Gabrielsen, who had given birth to a baby daughter a few months earlier, planned to go out with her husband to spend time together at Sisters Rodeo. Later that night, near the rodeo grounds, Marlene and her husband got into an argument over his desire to leave with his friends. Marlene then left for her home to be with her baby. She later encountered two men, one of whom was Ackroyd, who told her they could give her a lift.
The other man had exited the vehicle and left during the journey, leaving Marlene alone with Ackroyd. Later, Marlene woke up from her sleep to find him dragging her out of the truck. He then r*ped Marlene Gabrielsen, and afterwards threatened to kill her. Marlene begged to be taken to her baby, and Ackroyd later dropped her at her mother-in-law's house. Marlene informed the police, leading to charges being filed against him. However, the authorities did not prosecute, and thus Ackroyd never faced any charges for this assault.
2) Kaye Turner disappeared on the highway while going on a run
As per a Corvallis Gazette-Times article published on June 13, 1992, Kaye Turner was a staff manager in the staff resources department who shared a passion for running. She had completed several marathons and arrived at Camp Sherman, Oregon, before Christmas.
It was around 8:30 am when she went out on a run along a two-lane camp road. Her husband, Noel Turner, expected his wife to come back an hour later; however, when she didn't, he feared she was kidnapped. She was last seen by state highway construction workers near Camp Sherman. They had seen John Ackroyd following her from behind. Ackroyd was confronted and made up a story that he went there to hunt coyotes.
When the police embarked on a search mission, they found two sets of footprints. One was from Kaye's shoes, and the second had a large footprint. The scene showed that the victim was dragged away. As per a Pynter article published on January 29, 2019, it was in August 1979, Ackroyd turned up to the police, informing them he had found Kaye's body remains half a mile away from where she went to run.
He eventually revealed that he had a conversation with Kaye but went to meet his friend Roger Dale Beck afterward. As per the Corvallis Gazette-Times, both Ackroyd and Beck were arrested in 1992. As per a Statesman Journal, published on November 24, 1993, it was in November 1993, when he was found guilty of the r*pe and murder of Kaye Turner. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
3) John Ackroyd allegedly abused his step-daughter
As per Oregon Live, Rachanda Pickle was the step-daughter of John Ackroyd, who lived in the Santiam Junction at Oregon 22, near Highway 20. Ackroyd was a worker in the state highway department, and in the isolated area, Rachanada didn't have any school or children of her age to play with.
She was reportedly s*xually abused by her stepfather and abandoned at home. She was 13 years old during the mid-1980s when Rachanda mysteriously disappeared. As per an Albany Democrat-Herald article published on April 2, 1993, a massive search operation was conducted in the region surrounding Highway 20, which lasted till 1993.
It was almost three decades later, in April 2014, when Ackroyd was charged with the murder of Rachanda Pickle. However, as per Oregon Live, the case was closed when the authorities reached a plea deal with Rachanda's brother, Bryon Pickle. Ackroyd was already in prison, and the deal was to keep the culprit behind bars till the end of his life.
4) Teenagers Melissa Sanders and Sheila Swanson disappeared while hitchhiking on Highway 20
Melissa Sanders and Sheila Swanson were two teenagers who had come to the Beverly Beach State Park with their family on a camping trip in the spring of 1992. As per The Oregonian, the girls decided to hitchhike to Shari's restaurant near Highway 20 but disappeared midway.
Having initially assumed Melissa had returned home, the Sanders family informed the police of Melissa's disappearance when they found she was not at home. The police then embarked on a search operation in the woods between Highway 20 and Sweet Home. Again, John Ackroyd became the prime suspect since he was reportedly a frequent customer in the same restaurant.
As per Oregon Live, the night the two teenagers disappeared, Ackroyd was seen returning to a state highway shop in Sweet Home with his clothes reportedly covered in blood. Ackroyd said that he had gone hunting, and the blood belonged to a deer while he took its guts out. However, hunters discovered the bodies of the two teenagers near an old logging spur near Highway 20.
The bodies of Melissa and Sheila were found a month before Ackroyd was charged with the murder of Kay Turner. During the interrogation, he declined to reveal anything about the murder of Melissa and Sheila. Investigators also discovered that Ackroyd reportedly knew the victims, and he was reported to be seen around the place where the bodies were discovered.
5) Several unidentified remains of dead bodies were retrieved from Highway 20
Though John Ackroyd was convicted of the r*pe and murder of the multiple identified victims, several unidentified bodies were found near Highway 20, which remained a mystery. It was on July 24, 1976, when a hunter discovered the remains of a dead woman near Swamp Mountain, which was named Swamp Mountain Jane Doe.
Additionally, two teenagers, Rodney Lynn Grissom and Karen Jean Lee, disappeared in May 1977 in Cornelius, Oregon, and months later, some of their belongings were found in Linn County, Oregon. Another 22-year-old woman named Elizabeth Mussler disappeared in the summer of 1977, and her remains were found inside a shallow grave near Highway 20.
Another woman's skull was found in April 1978; she was named a Linn County Jane Doe. On August 27, 1978, two hunters in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, found a skull stuck out of an empty grave named Finley Creek Jane Doe. As per The Charley Project, it was in 1986 when Forest Service workers found a partial human skull, with some bone fragments, and a tooth near Government Camp off U.S. 26 on Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon.
The skull remained unidentified until 2019, when the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office began a DNA analysis and found that it matched with Wana Ann Herr. She was a 19-year-old girl living in Gresham, Oregon, who disappeared back in June 1976. She was considered to have run away until it was discovered that she, too, was among the victims of Highway 20.
Check our other articles for more cases on the Crime Junkie podcast.
