Author Archives: Ryan Auclair

I’m continuing my plan for this year, which is grid searching out a pair of draws and spurs that line up with several, but not all, of the reported accounts and official documentation from LCSO. I’m in an area that is 1/4 mile downhill from a landing and is in close proximity to other areas of interest in this case. This is the area my friends and Trooper the cadaver dog started working on 16 May 2025, and I’m going to continue that work.

The weather this trip was the opposite of the 16 May search. It was hot, dry and very dusty. Honestly, these would have been great conditions for Trooper, certainly far better than 45 and pouring rain. The objective for the day was to mark out another box, this one to the east and uphill of the area cleared by the team last month.

I arrived early, knowing that the area I wanted to clear would take most of the day to cover. Remy and I walked up the draw, I dropped my pack and marked out the box for the day, while my supervisor made himself comfortable in the undergrowth.

The plan for this spur, since it is where the limit of timber cutting was established, is to search the spur / old tree line until I connect with the corner where the tree line turns to the north. Once that has been reached, I then plan to search the draw, the next spur and the draw on the other side of the second spur. When I have this area completed, I will post a map and GPS tracks to better illustrate the area.

It was a very full day of grid searching up hill. The box was about 50’ by 100’, or roughly equal to the box the team cleared in a couple of hours. I was working until the late afternoon to cover the same square footage. I ended up working in just a t-shirt by the afternoon.

Although my work for the day took longer, I did maintain the thoroughness that the team displayed. I would estimate my probability of detection within the box as over 75%. I need to sit down with a GIS system and work out the distance to the former tree line, but based on topography and distance, I should be about 1/2 way there.

Despite the excellent weather and the snow being gone from all but the highest altitude logging roads, I only saw 4 vehicles going up and down the road on Saturday. It just underscores how isolated this area is, and how secrets can be kept by this forest for decades.

26 May 1977 at 3:18pm, your ride came and you had to go. Hopefully this year, you come back.

Similar to last year, I hosted a group of friends to come out and help me with searching for Karen and Rodney. Since we are searching in a new area this year, one of my friends connected me with Cathy and her dog Trooper, an archaeological cadaver dog.

I had 7 friends show up on a very rainy and cool Saturday. The general plan was for the 3 with low angle experience to form a ropes team that will descend the slope below where Rodney’s clothes were found. Their task was to search that hillside for remains. The other 4 formed a ground search team, who would be called up if Trooper alerted or showed interest in an area.

We started the day with a case, tasking and safety brief at the campground, followed by a short convoy to Soda Fork Rd. We parked at Landing 2, and the teams stayed in their vehicles while I followed Cathy and Trooper into the search area, with pin flags.

We started running Trooper in an area of interest farthest from landing 3, and then worked him closer to the landing. In an area where the tree line had been in 1977, Trooper went nose to the ground, walking in circles and whining at his handler. Pin flags went down into the ground, creating a 50’x50’ box. I radioed the ground team that it was time to leave the dry of their vehicles and start clearing the area.

While the ground team got into position, the ropes team was already rigged up and had descended the east side of the road towards the creek.

Once I guided the ground team into position, we began a hands and knees grid search of the area that Trooper showed interest in. We were able to make two passes within 2 hours and they completely cleared the ground of all duff and debris.

Having this many people help, all with ground search experience, finished the grid search in about 2 hours, while solo this would have been a full day. I cannot express my gratitude to my friends enough for the help.

While the ground team took a breather, I checked in with the rope team, who were also on a break. They had dropped down the slope to the bench above the creek, and were clearing benches, debris traps and drainage chutes as they ascended to the road. After completing an ascent, they repositioned the rope, and repeated the descent and searching ascent.

After a brief rest, the ground team went back up the hill, and started working down slope of the area Trooper found for us. Another 50’x50’ search area was marked, and we worked clearing it until we overlapped with the previous search. The team did another very thorough search. I would rate the probability of detection at close to 80-90% in the area we searched.

While the ground team cleared the next search box, the ropes team finished their day working the slope between the road and the creek. Based on the photos they sent, I have to believe they are some of the first searchers to really get into that terrain.

In conclusion, I want to thank Cathy, Chancy, Brie, Sky, Julia, Rachel, Alan and Levi for showing up on a very wet Saturday and putting a full day in at the site. I really want to thank the best boy Trooper, who worked so hard getting us to a starting point. It was the equivalent of 7 successive solo searches by me, and I can’t express my thanks enough. These people and Trooper represent the best of us.

The past two weekends have seen me at Soda Fork, working a site survey of Landing 3 and the surrounding terrain. This is the last remaining landing in Section 19 that is in proximity to Soda Fork Rd. Despite being the last landing examined, several factors have me optimistic for the coming search season.

Just to be upfront, until I’m done with this area, I won’t be posting GPS tracks. After completing the site survey, a lot of data points that didn’t quite line up started fitting together. In fact, this area is the only one that makes sense in terms of the facts of the case, the reporting on it and Ackroyd’s MO. I want to preserve this area until the search is complete.

Once I’ve searched this area, I will post the tracks and the information on why it feels very probative for finding Karen. This terrain is brutal to walk across- steep, heavily wooded with dense underbrush. Completing the site survey on 26 April 2025, I walked over 6 miles, with 3600 feet of elevation gain and loss. My dog is still sleeping that day off, and I feel like I should join him.

Welcome back! I completed the first search of the 2025 season on 13 April 2025. The plan for this year is to complete the landing I’ve been working, landing 2, then search landing 3 and the Grissom site. I’ve been working on landing 2 since June 2023 and I’m only now feeling like the end of that work is in reach.

Over the winter I formulated a plan based on the 1982 BLM aerial imagery I obtained. In that photo of Section 19, there are 3 landings visible along Soda Fork Rd. At the far north is landing 1, which I cleared in 2023. Next up to the south is landing 2, that I have been taking apart since June 2023. The last landing in the section is landing 3, which is up a decommissioned logging road from landing 2.

In the service of thoroughness, I am tying up landing 2 loose ends this spring. My work is focused on clearing the hillside between the searches completed on the south side of the hill with the searches completed on the north side. I also will be rolling logs in the vicinity of the wine bottle located spring 2024. John Arthur Ackroyd made some “idle speculation” during the search for Rachanda that the killer may have rolled a log over her remains to hide them. Knowing Ackroyd’s relative sophistication and habit of stating falsehoods rooted in fact, I decided that this would be a worthwhile approach.

The wine bottle was located in a jumble of fallen logs and cut brush that may have been a slash pile at one point in the past. Starting from the bottle, I rolled logs back and cleared under them. I started with logs that I could move solo. I’m about the same size as Ackroyd in 1977, probably lighter, so a good starting point would be the logs I can move solo, like he presumably did.

Working to roll and search under the logs, I am grateful that rattlesnakes are not generally found West of the Cascades. I found bark, soil, clay and rock under the logs I could roll back, and about the same on others I cleared holes under when they were too heavy to move solo. I’ll be bringing wrecking bars, turnbuckles and cables to move the others.

After completing the logs I could, I roped up and started working the hillside from where I stopped late last fall. I had the same plan as before- Set up a lane on the hill, descend on a rope to the bottom, then crawl up, grid searching the lane.

Searching the 60 degree slope went relatively quickly. It is steep enough not to collect a lot of debris and the ground cover is fairly minimal. I rappelled down to a bench above the creek, and worked my way up, sidehilling on my hands and knees across the lane. There were two large subductions where erosion caused the hill to slide into the creek. I skipped these parts as the ground was extremely unstable; it gave way under my feet numerous times and I had to rely on the Prussik to stop my slide down. If there were remains on those sections, they have long since washed into Soda Fork and been carried into the South Santiam River.

After completing the lane on the slope, I marked out the next one with surveying flags and then hiked out towards the road. Once there, I dropped my pack and climbing gear off at the truck and started walking up the decommissioned logging road to landing 3.

It was a fairly short walk to the landing; maybe 10 minutes. The road is still relatively passable, and there were ATV tracks and shotshell hulls proving the presence of others in the past. I was slightly concerned about locating a landing that had been abandoned for probably 40 years, but it was still there, a large open area in the forest.

On my next trip, I’ll complete a site survey of landing 3 and search the lines of drift leading from it.

It was a cold day at Soda Fork Rd. We had been light on rain this past week, and I took advantage of that to continue the seam search at the Lee Site. Checking the forecast, it was 28 in Sweet Home when I left home. On the drive east on US20 I formulated my search plan. I wanted to take the seam I searched on 9 November 2024 and expand its perimeter.

I started seeing black ice right at the bridge over the South Fork of the Santiam, well past Cascadia. Red lava gravel from ODOT’s upper Cascade gravel pits was spread along the road, adding traction. The “Caution: Log Trucks” sign was missing from the side of the highway as I turned onto Soda Fork Rd.

It was 33 degrees when I reached the landing, and frost encased the leaf litter. The faint crunch of frozen leaves, grass and ground cover followed my footsteps into the forest.

I started grid searching on the upper lip of the depression I searched last time. I searched up hill in adjacent lanes, probably about 75 feet or so from the starting point before starting the next lane.

Despite the relatively dry weather the week prior, the ground cover was thoroughly wet, and my fingertips were numb after about 45 minutes. I pulled debris from several small animal burrows, pulled ferns back, going to the ground under them. I rolled several old logs over, going through the earth underneath them.

I was able to work for about 2.5 hours before my hands crab-clawed from the cold and I lost dexterity in them. I had expanded the area searched within the seam, and covered the amount of ground I planned on.

This is my last search until spring. The amount of time I can safely work in these conditions is fairly short, and I can cover more ground per day in better weather. My plan for 2025 is to complete the rope assisted search of the slope to the creek, expanding the area searched from the yellow track northwards. After I have completed this landing, I’ll start on the 3rd landing, long abandoned, to the west of this one. I should also be able to start the thorough searches of the Grissom related sites.

The weather is definitely turning towards its winter pattern as November progresses. I’ll be continuing to search as conditions allow but updates might be farther apart than usual. My goal for today was to grid search a “seam” between the searches completed around where the bottle was found, and the area searched by volunteers on Memorial Day weekend. It had been on my “to do” list for a while, but I had focused on the slope below the bottle location for most of the late summer and fall. The slope is fairly unstable ground, and I’d rather wait for dry weather before roping up again.

The conditions were just below 50 and damp, but not wet. This was far easier searching than the rappel assisted descent of the slope and working the hillside, so I was able to cover a decent amount of ground before dark. The seam consisted of two drainage lines, two ridges between them, and a depression where a tree had gone over.

The broadleaf and vine maples were shedding their golden leaves as I worked, reminding me of how the forest covers its secrets annually. I started along the first drainage line, about 20 feet from the bottle, and began clearing the duff and debris until dirt and bare rock emerged.

The relatively flat terrain made this a far less physically taxing day than the previous few searches have been. I was able to clear the two drainage lines and the ridge between them before my lunch break. After that I focused on the depression at the head of the lines, the outflow of which was blocked by a large boulder that trapped a lot of debris around it.

As I was working this area, the large amount of river teeth and the top soil composition led me to believe that this had been a slash pile from when this was logged. The top soil color was frequently the red-brown indicative of a decomposed Western Red Cedar, which the numerous cedar saplings confirmed. After searching the depression and the debris trap around the boulder, I moved on to the last ridge between drainage lines. I made fairly quick work of it on my hands and knees.

I finished up around 4pm, just as dusk was approaching in the Cascades. Driving back home, I counted 7 other vehicles on US20 between Soda Fork Rd and Sweet Home, reinforcing the isolation of this stretch of road.

What remains to be searched along the south side of the landing is the very steep hillside from the upper bench to the creek below. Over the summer I’ve able to cover quite a bit of it, working from the south and then north towards the landing. The sections that remain are very steep, probably a 60 degree slope. For safety, I’ve begun to use a rope to get down the hill, and then work in some areas.

Last weekend I had marked off an area to search knowing I would need a rope system. Not knowing how this would work out, it was a fairly narrow strip down the hill. The box started out just slightly overlapping the 5 October search area, and extended to the north about 50m. I found a suitable anchor point, a well rooted and large Doug Fir, set up a friction hitch and began to rope up.

I completed a walking rappel down the hillside to the cliff out above the creek. I found a small knob I could stand on and I began to develop a plan to search the hill going up.

It isn’t exactly clear in the video, but the slope to the north (upstream) had a landslide at some point. The ground is extremely loose sandy soil and gravel, with a minimal amount of brush and moss holding it together. There were several trees that had gone over during the landslide event. Judging by the concave feature of that part of the hill, a decent amount of the surface slid into the creek. I found a drainage chute that allowed me to get into the creek bed, and I spent the first part of the search going through debris piles and the undercut bank along the stream.

The day was mostly spent crawling back and forth along the slope, clearing a double arm’s wide lane at a time, before changing direction and clearing another lane. With the assistance of the rope, and the relatively open ground of the slide area I was able to search about double the area I had planned on.

The discovery of the slide area does concern me about any remains being found. Anything that was in that area slid into the creek and would have been taken down stream in the spring run-off. I’m not saying that definitely happened, but a large surface area of the hill is gone, along with anything that may have been there.

Nevertheless, I laid out the flags for next week’s rope assisted search.

Due to the fire closure, I lost about 5 weeks of the summer search season. I plan on making that time up by working out here every weekend until the weather really takes a turn. I’ve made some significant progress since the closure lifted, and I’d like to keep the momentum going.

I’ve continued making progress along the hillside below the upper bench and south of the landing. Yesterday’s objective was to clear the area I marked off with pin flags last time. I made it out to the site in the morning, hiked down to the slope and got to work.

I started at the cliff out over the creek, overlapped with my last search lane and began to clear the slope. Much like last time, I worked parallel to the creek, crawling south to north, clearing a lane, then turning and heading back 1 arm length upslope.

Where my path crossed a drainage chute or debris trap, I would stop and concentrate on those areas, ensuring that all the debris was sorted through, the base of ferns were checked and generally sweeping clean the forest floor. When working uphill on a drainage line, I generally could stand up and work the chute above me. The hill was that kind of steep, and this is the last least steep section as I continue working north along the creek.

It took until late afternoon to complete the section I had marked out. I finished the day by marking out the next lane and scouting some anchor points for next week’s safety line. I’ll be working roped up from here forward, mainly to add to the safety margin of working on that hill. This will also allow me to develop techniques for working while roped, which will be useful on the much more steep Grissom site.

The search yesterday was one of the more physically demanding ones performed at the site. I’m continuing to grid the hillside between the upper bench and Soda Fork Creek and the angle of the slope is very taxing to work. I usually work on my hands and knees in the underbrush, but yesterday I probably spent an equal amount of time prone on my stomach to maximize contact with the ground. Gravity was a constant companion. I experienced one fairly long slide when the ground my boots were kicked into gave way, and gravity overcame the friction co-efficient.

I followed the trail I made down the hillside on the 21 July search, and began yesterday’s search to the south of that zone. I started by clearing the bench just above the cliff out to the creek. Once that area was complete, I began by side-hilling on a crawl to the south, until I reached a point where the cliff cut into the hillside significantly. That eroded area set a natural boundary to the south. I went up the hill about an arm’s length and then reversed my direction of travel to the north, clearing the next strip of ground.

I continued this slow crossing of the hillside for the morning and into the afternoon. The underbrush was thick and there was one area that was tangled in native blackberry and devil’s club that I was unable to get into. The slope was steep and uneven enough that attempting to search it without being roped up red-lined my risk meter. I will get into that area, just on a day when I have the right equipment with me.

Once I finished crisscrossing the lane up the hill, and I was able to sit on the relatively flat ground at the top, I was done. It was grueling to work that hillside. This area would challenge anyone with the combination of terrain, angle, and vegetation. I split a peanut butter Clif bar with the dog and rested for a few minutes. I then marked off the next adjacent lane on the hill before calling it a day.

Another challenge was that my GPS accuracy was off. An iPhone without signal reverts to using solely GPS-A signal, which is less accurate than a signal generated from triangulated cell towers and the GPS satellite network. A stand-alone GPS unit is exceptionally accurate because its antenna is optimized to receive that signal. An iPhone antenna is designed to handle many different types of signals, so there are trade-offs to be made. As a result, the GPS track for yesterday completely overlaps with the 21 July search, making it appear that I covered the same ground twice. I’ve annotated the track with a red box to show the actual area I searched.

The hillside I’m currently working on is directly below where I found the wine bottle. I consider the area “of interest” due to that proximity. If the bottle was left by Ackroyd when he revisited the crime scene, then downslope from there is a likely area to find disarticulated skeletal remains. That’s a lot of time and labor resting on the assumption that Ackroyd left that bottle, but if it drives thoroughness and a complete search of the landing area, it’s worth it.