Category Archives: The Lee and Grissom Search

I want to take a moment and thank at least 4 people whose work has made this search possible. Without them, and those who assisted them, this project would not have been remotely feasible. The research conducted for this had it’s start with a series of Oregonian articles first published in 2018.

The Ghosts of Highway 20 was a long form journalism project written by Noelle Crombie, with major contributions from photojournalist Beth Nakamura and videographer Dave Killen. In particular, I want to thank Noelle Crombie for uploading and making available hundreds of pages of police reports, interrogation transcripts, archived news articles and other source materials as part of the project. That trove of materials directly informed this search.

The documentary below is by the Oregonian team and is an excellent film on the subject. I highly recommend it.

I would be remiss with only crediting Noelle for making the source material available. The reporting and narrative helped frame and make sense of often conflicting or incomplete primary sources. By way of example, if one was to try to make sense of the Lee and Grissom disappearance from the primary sources alone, you would spend a great deal of time chasing yourself in circles. Thank you Noelle, Beth and Dave for your hard work and dedication to the memory of the Ghosts of Highway 20.

I need to thank now retired Linn County Sheriff’s Detective Mike Harmon. His reopening of the Rachanda Pickle investigation in 2010 eventually led to John Ackroyd pleading no contest in the disappearance of his step-daughter. Mike Harmon also reviewed decades worth of unsolved homicides and disappearances as part of his investigation into John Ackroyd, of which the Lee and Grissom case is but one. His participation in the reporting project shined a light on dusty cases concerning marginalized or otherwise forgotten people. Thank you Sir.

Most importantly, Marlene Gabrielsen’s original police report and subsequent interviews with Noelle Crombie are invaluable to me. She is the only known survivor of John Ackroyd, and her attack, occurring only 3 weeks after Karen and Rodney vanished directly informed my search. Thank you for your bravery in coming forward at the time and in the years since.

As a disclaimer upfront, what follows is a reasonable set of inferences developed from the facts available. While conjecture, I believe I have developed a logical interpretation of the facts, and one that I would brief an investigator from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

1. We will take as granted that Karen and Rodney were traveling together, with an ultimate destination of California.

2. Rodney departed Hillsboro on 24 May 1977. Karen departed on 26 May 1977. Rodney Grissom was last seen in Albany Oregon on 24 May 1977. We will assume that Karen traveled from Hillsboro on the 26th and rendezvoused with Rodney in Albany.

3. Albany OR is a mid-sized city of approximately 60,000 on I5. Highway 20 travels east-west through town, while I5 travels north-south.

4. The last contact with Karen Lee is at 3:18pm on 26 May 1977. This is a phone call from a pay phone in Lebanon, OR to a relative or friend in Wisconsin. Lebanon, OR is approximately 15-18 miles to the east of the I5 and US20 interchange in Albany.

5. Based on the conclusion of the phone call, “our ride is here, I have to go”, we can assume 3 things: Karen and Rodney were still traveling together; there is no indication of impending danger; they have arranged a ride from Lebanon.

5. If Karen and Rodney’s ultimate destination was California, why would they be in Lebanon, 15-18 miles away from I5? I5 is the most direct and well traveled route to California. Interpretation: Rodney had previously runaway to Bend Oregon, about 100 miles east of Lebanon on US20. Bend is also where his mother lived. My working assumption is that Rodney and Karen slightly changed their plan, and decided to go to Bend first, perhaps to link up with friends in the area, or to meet with Rodney’s mother.

6. It takes about 50 minutes to drive from Lebanon to Soda Fork Road. If Karen, Rodney and their ride left Lebanon at about 3:18pm, they would arrive at Soda Fork between 4 and 4:30.

7. When Karen’s clothing was recovered, her jeans appeared to be cut. This is a detail shared with the Ackroyd survivor Marlene Gabrielsen, who’s jeans were also cut off, and the clothing recovered from Ackroyd victim Kaye Turner, who’s running shorts had also been cut. Swamp Mountain Doe, another victim attributed to Ackroyd, also had cut jeans located with her remains. Between the cut jeans, and single shoe recovered, I assume that the missing shoe remained on Karen’s foot. From the records it is hard to determine how much of Karen’s worn clothing was recovered.

8. When Rodney’s clothing was recovered, the items listed in the sources were all outerwear- jacket, jeans, belt. His shirt, t-shirt, underwear, socks and shoes were not listed as recovered. Rodney was also in possession of an orange, external frame backpack with “R. Grissom” written in ink on it. The backpack was traced to a Bend pawnshop, where it was purchased and then later sold at a garage sale in Redmond, OR. No records of who sold the backpack to the pawnshop were found, and the pack has not been located.

9. I retrieved historical weather station data for the 48 hour period covering 26 and 27 May 1977 from the Albany OR weather station. On 26 May, the high was 56, with a low of 45. It started raining at 11pm, continuing throughout the night and intensifying in the very early morning hours and continuing throughout the day of 27 May. The high for 27 May was 55, with a low of 45.

10. Based on the weather data, I will assume that Karen’s recovered sweater was worn by her that day.

11. Rodney’s recovered watch had stopped on “27th” at “4:50”. Since the watch is a two arm dial, it is not knowable whether this is AM or PM. The following is my interpretation of this fact: The “27th” date is accurate; I will assume that the watch may have been a prized possession and kept in accurate, working order as a matter of personal pride. Rodney was carrying a jewelers type screwdriver in his pocket, the type one would use to remove the back of the watch to replace a battery. Based on precipitation data, my assumption is that the watch stopped at 4:50AM on 27 May from water intrusion. This indicates to me that Rodney was most likely dead by this time.

12. Karen Lee bears a similar resemblance to the forensic anthropologist’s reconstruction of the face of Swamp Mountain Doe (found 24 July 1976 on Swamp Mountain Road, 1 mile from US20). Swamp Mountain Doe is believed to be a victim of John Ackroyd. Karen also resembles Ackroyd survivor Marlene Gabrielsen, and missing step-daughter Rachanda Pickle. Lee, Gabrielsen, Pickle and the reconstruction of Swamp Mountain Doe all have dark brown hair and brown eyes.

13. Based on the physical appearance of Karen Lee, that her items were recovered on a logging road off US20, that the cut to her jeans is consistent with other victims and her last known location of Lebanon, I concur with LCSO Detective Mike Harmon that Ackroyd is a likely suspect.

14. The Shari’s Cafe in Lebanon is located on US20 and is a known location that Ackroyd frequented. It would also be a logical stop for two runaways looking for a ride to Bend.

15. Historical maps indicate that there was a pay phone at a gas station 2 blocks from the Shari’s. Without access to phone company pen registers from 1977, it is pure conjecture that Karen’s last call was made from this particular phone at 2412 S. Santiam Highway (US20).

The following map is a time phased recreation of their assumed journey.

Karen Jean Lee was 15 years old, a recent arrival from the Midwest to Cornelius or Hillsboro, OR (records differ) with her family. She is listed as 5’7”, 128 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes. She was last seen on the morning of May 26th, 1977 and is believed to have runaway to California with her friend, Rodney Grissom, who had left 2 days prior.

Rodney L. Grissom is 14, from Cornelius, or Hillsboro, OR. His height is listed at between 5’2” and 5’4”, 100-110 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. His middle name is recorded as both “Lee”, “Lynn” or “Linn” in police and NCMEC documentation. Shortly before his disappearance, he had runaway to Bend, OR. He was located in Bend by his mother, Marjorie (Grissom) Burt, and she was also a Bend resident at the time. He was last seen on May 24th, 1977 in Albany, OR, about 15 miles west of Lebanon, OR. Rodney L. Grissom was not officially reported missing until February 27th, 2012. He may have been reported as a runaway to the Washington County Sheriff in 1977.

The last known contact with the pair occurred on May 26th, 1977 at 3:18pm, when Karen placed a call from a pay phone in Lebanon, OR to a relative (or friend) in Wisconsin. The call concluded with “our ride is here, I have to go”.

On November 7th, 1977, at approximately 1:45pm, a logger found Lee’s clothing and items off Soda Fork Rd, Forest Service Road 2041. No remains were located by either the logger or a subsequent search by the Sheriff’s office. That search was cut short by logging operations in the area. Clothing and items recovered are listed as: Levis denim jeans, that appear to have been cut; a single shoe, a leather moccasin type, a sweater, blanket, socks, miscellaneous clothing to include a blouse sewn for a school project, a journal and other documents.

On November 8th, 1982 a logger found Grissom’s clothing and items, also along Soda Fork Rd. No remains were found in this case, but the clothing and items were positively identified as Rodney Grissom’s by his mother, Marjorie (Grissom) Burt. The clothing and items recovered are listed as: Blue jacket with a screw driver in the pocket, and remnants of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes; Levis denim jeans with a wallet containing ID for Rodney Grissom, a house key on a fouled anchor key fob, cash and coins, and a wrist watch stopped on “27th” at “4:50”, unknown due to dial type if this is am or pm. It is by 1982 that the disappearance of Rodney and Karen is being treated as a homicide by LCSO.

In 2012, as part of the investigation into John Ackroyd, the Linn County Sheriff again searched both locations along Soda Fork Rd, but no additional items or remains were located.