“Our Ride is Here”: A Theory of the Crime

Note: This post contains a theory regarding a sexual assault and double homicide.

What follows is my theory of the crime that happened to Karen Lee and Rodney Grissom. It is drawn from the facts of the case, my analysis of those facts and what we have learned about John Ackroyd from Marlene Gabrielsen’s account and later investigations into him. While this is speculative, I believe it to be grounded in the facts as we know them. This is intended to fill in the blank between Karen’s final phone call at 3:18pm on 26 May 1977 and when Rodney’s watch stopped at 4:50am on 27 May 1977. This theory will be used to guide the search for Karen and Rodney’s remains.

Karen and Rodney arrive in Lebanon in the afternoon of 26 May 1977. They have decided to detour to Bend before making their way to California. They have hitchhiked from Albany to Lebanon and have arrived at Shari’s Cafe.

While searching for their next ride on the journey to Bend, they encounter John Ackroyd. At the time a 28 year old mechanic and welder working for a local shop, who lived in Sweet Home. Later he would begin work as a highway mechanic for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Since Bend was only about 2 hours east of his residence / workplace he offered to give them a ride the rest of the way.

Karen left for the gas station at 2412 S. Santiam Highway. Rodney loaded his orange backpack into Ackroyd’s truck bed and went to join Karen at the gas station. After buying a few items and while placing her final phone call, Ackroyd pulls into the gas station. Karen and Rodney get into the truck, most likely Rodney in the middle seat of the front bench seat, with Karen in the passenger seat and Ackroyd driving. They may have noticed a rifle in the rear window rack and the fixed blade knife on the dash. Given that the weather was in the mid-50s, the windows would have been rolled up, and we can only wonder if Karen or Rodney noticed that the passenger door lacked a window crank and door handle. The time is now approximately 3:20pm on 26 May 1977.

They may have made small talk on the drive from Lebanon to Bend on Highway 20. After about 50 minutes of driving, and as they near the junction of Highway 20 and Soda Fork Road (Forest Service Road 2041), Ackroyd announces that he “needs to take a leak” and turns off of Highway 20 and onto Soda Fork Rd.

The immediate area around the junction hosts a small grouping of houses and buildings such as lean-to garages, and larger storage sheds. Ackroyd drives past the inhabited area, and the nearby junction of Forest Service Road 2043. It is approximately 4:10pm, most, if not all, of the logging crews have finished work and have left the woods for the day.

Despite the junction of Soda Fork and 2043 Road having a large pullout, it is also a “hang out” area that sees a decent amount of traffic. There may have been off-shift loggers there, which would have made it less than ideal for a bathroom break and certainly for Ackroyd’s ulterior motive. If anyone had been parked here, they would have seen a pickup truck with what would appear to be a family unit or some kind of social grouping heading out to the woods on a spring afternoon.

Proceeding north on Soda Fork Rd, Ackroyd pulls off at the next large pullout. Ackroyd opens the driver door and gets out, Rodney sliding out after. Karen elects to stay behind in the truck, most likely not feeling comfortable relieving herself in the company of two males, or she would rather hold it until Bend. Ackroyd closes the driver’s side door behind him, effectively containing Karen in the truck until he returns.

Ackroyd and Rodney take a visible path into the woods, which quickly drops about 20 feet below grade until it levels out at a small “bench” on the hillside. In this location, the truck is not visible to the two males, the two males are not visible from the truck and the steepness of the hillside will absorb sound coming up from below. Rodney may have heard the sound of Soda Creek rushing through its course below them.

At this point I believe Ackroyd either shot, stabbed or otherwise fatally incapacitated Rodney Grissom. Leaving Rodney, Ackroyd walks up the hill and back to the truck. Karen is now alone and trapped. Either through guile or threat of violence, Ackroyd drives 1/4 mile ahead to a log yard. Parking his truck, he drags Karen into the forest behind the yard. At this point, anyone driving Soda Fork Rd would have noticed a pick up truck parked at the yard, but would have assumed it was a logger finishing up for the day.

Secluded from the road, Ackroyd orders Karen to undress. Karen removes one shoe, but as this is too slow for Ackroyd, he cuts her jeans off, leaving the other moccasin still on her right foot. In short order, Karen Lee is murdered by John Ackroyd.

The time is now 5pm. John Ackroyd has about 4 to 4.5 hours until dark. Ackroyd returns to his truck, and retrieves a shovel from the bed. Most Oregonians who regularly go into the woods carry a shovel, ax and fire extinguisher as part of the legally required “fire fighting” equipment for a vehicle. Ackroyd also retrieves Karen’s bag from the cab. Returning to the body, Ackroyd digs a shallow grave and places Karen in it. Ackroyd fills the grave in, then rifles through her clothes and belongings, leaving them in the woods behind the log yard.

Ackroyd returns to the turnout where Rodney’s body lays. Ackroyd strips the body at “the bench”, then drags the body downhill and buries Rodney in another shallow grave. Ackroyd moves the body out of the bench as it would likely be discovered by a logger also using the wood line at that pull out. Ackroyd stripped the body in an attempt to speed decomposition, or for unknown reasons. Ackroyd leaves Soda Fork near or after nightfall and returns to Santiam Junction. Starting at 11pm, it begins raining in Linn County and Rodney’s watch stops at 4:50am the following morning, 27 May 1977.

At some point in the following days, Ackroyd pawns Rodney’s backpack in Bend. Bend is two jurisdictions away from Linn County and it is unlikely that anyone would find the missing runaway’s backpack there.

Almost 6 months later, on 7 November 1977, a logger takes a post-lunch trip to the wood line behind the log yard to relieve himself. The logger stumbles across Karen’s clothing and belongings, and this is reported to the Linn County Sheriff. A cursory search of the area is made.

Over 5 years later, on 8 November 1982, a logger traveling on Soda Fork pulls over at the large pullout just before the log yard, and goes into the woods to relieve himself. He finds Rodney’s clothing and this is also reported to the Linn County Sheriff. Another cursory search of the immediate area is made.

Karen and Rodney remain in their shallow forest graves.