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Highway 20 is an infamous highway route in the state of Oregon, United States, which testified to a series of murders and disappearances from the 1970s to 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 se*ual assault and became the prime suspect for at least five disappearances. Even after massive police searches, the victims couldn't be found until the remains of their bones 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."
5 chilling details about the Crimes of Highway 20
1) John Ackroyd had r*ped his wife
As per The Oregonian, it was in 1977 when Ackroyd's wife, Marlene Gabrielsen, had given birth to their baby daughter. The couple was having heated debates in their relationship, and hence, Marlene wanted to visit a rodeo to spend some time off in Sisters, Oregon. Ackroyd agreed to drive her there in his car; however, in the middle of Highway 20, he took a detour to an isolated road.
There, she bought a knife and cut off her clothes. He r*ped his wife while she begged to be taken to her baby. Ackroyd did not kill Marlene but dropped her at her mother-in-law's house. Marlene informed the police, who charged him with being guilty. However, the authorities did not bring suit against the case.
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 a staff resources manager 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 a state highway worker named Camp Sherman, who saw John Ackroyd following her from behind. Ackroyd was confronted, who 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 on 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 Corvallis Gazette-Times, both Ackroyd and Beck were arrested in 1992. As per a Statesman Journal, published on November 24, 1993, it was on 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 physically abused his daughter
As per the Orgeon Live, Richanda Pickle was the daughter of John Ackroyd, who lived in the Santiam Junction at Orgon 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.
She was reportedly s*xually abused by her father and abandoned all alone in the home. She was 13 years old during the mid-1980s when Rachanada 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 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 agreed to keep the culprit behind bars till the end of his life.
4) The Sanders sisters disappeared while hitchhiking on Highway 20
Melissa and Sheila Sanders were sisters who came 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.
Soon, the Sanders family informed the police, who 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 sisters 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 Sanders sisters 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 behind the murder of the Sanders sisters. 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 for 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 Lyunn 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.
