Melissa Sanders was 17 and from Sweet Home. You have permission to edit this article. Rachanda's stepfather, John Arthur Ackroyd, is the last person known to have seen her. He told Linda to wait until the next day to call police. He was convicted in Jefferson County of two counts of aggravated murder and three counts of murder in Turner's death. He remains just one suspect of many in that case, but a strong one nonetheless. Her mother noticed the girls hairbrush, makeup and earrings were still there. Turner, a 35-year-old that typically lived in Eugene, worked for the Lane County Office of Community Health and Social Services, but had previously worked for the area's Planned Parenthood Association and also happened to be a rather well-known runner. She cried as she told one of them that she was terrified of returning to the junction alone. Once, when a clock fell off a shelf, he beat her with a homemade paddle. Another man was also convicted in Turner's death. During their digging into this case, they would uncover a plea deal agreed upon by both prosecutors and John Ackroyd, which had been agreed upon back in 2013, after charges had been filed in Rachanda's murder. But Rachanda grew homesick and came back a few days before her disappearance. Then he said he left. But they were always short-lived, so I mean, me and my sister had to rely on each other, Byron said. He wasn't required to provide the location of Rachanda's remains or anything like that; nor, it's believed, any specific details of the crime itself. Due to the three decades that have passed since, however, there are fewer people left to ask those questions many of Rachanda's relatives have passed on, and the ones that live on only have faded memories and mementos to remember her by. Also, it was determined that John's accomplice, Roger Dale Beck, had told friends and family about the killing and had threatened them never to tell or they would suffer the same fate. An adult would have a database trail associated with credit cards, utility bills, driver's licenses and property transactions. The DA knew Ackroyd had changed his story and admitted he had talked to Kaye the morning he encountered her on a run. All rights reserved (About Us). Oregon's 48 missing children: Photos, how to help McAnulty, whod been promoted to detective just 10 days earlier, dutifully examined old newspaper articles and reports. Stockpiles of cinder rock towered near the buildings inside the complex. These sporadic sightings extended not only through Oregon, but throughout a large chunk of the country; in particular, along the west coast, ranging as far south as California and as far north as Vancouver. Investigators were troubled by John Ackroyds knowledge of Rachandas bra size. Her mother left behind a short list of chores. Physical evidence proved he had been sexually abusing Rachanda prior to her disappearance. But prosecutors argued that not only had John given contradictory statements to questions he fully understood, but he had also lied about certain details to deflect suspicion from himself. Sheriff Art Martinak supervised the search operation over a rugged 50-square-mile area in the Lost Lake, Hoodoo Butte and Potato Hill areas that are lined with jagged lava beds. It wasn't until Oregonian reporters began digging into this case - following Ackroyd's death - that details of this plea deal would be released to the world at large. Her body has never been found. Rachanda stuck close to her mother and rarely strayed from the family home at Santiam Junction. Lt. Darrel James, who had coordinated the search efforts, told reporters during a press briefing: "There's no reason to think she ran away, and no information that she just walked off playing around. Rachanda Leah Pickle. She didnt want to be alone with him. Ackroyd "found" her body eight months later and was under suspicion in her case for many years, but he wasn't convicted in her death until 1994. Updated 10 times since October 12, 2004. Weeks after his death, prosecutors publicly acknowledged for the first time that Ackroyd had entered a plea in 2013 in the disappearance and presumed murder of Rachanda Pickle, his stepdaughter. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. One of Rachanda's dolls sits atop a shelf in the tidy manufactured home in California where her mother now lives. Ackroyd drove by the woman twice that morning. He was painting the tailgate. We must have laid 150 miles of string line laying out the grids, Mueller said. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. While the family's home was surrounded by dense wilderness, Rachanda quickly picked up on the area around them. Facebook This is a photo from inside the Linn County Sheriff's Office file room. My children know they did have an Aunt Rachanda.. Linn County Sheriff's Office mounted extensive search for Rachanda Ackroyd made the plea in open court, but then it was immediately sealed at his request. On that date, Ackroyd had asked, through his attorneys, for an expedited trial date because of some lingering health concerns. After his stepdaughter went missing, investigators reopened the Turner case and charged Ackroyd. You could win the lottery four or five times before something like that would happen, Salsbery said. Then there are the 1992 murders of Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders, teenagers whose bodies were found months after their initial disappearance. This is one of those things when you hope youll get a call from the family saying shes in Los Angeles or somewhere, Martinak said during the search. The two often went to school with bruises, which they attributed to John's abuse. Rachanda stuck close to her mother and rarely strayed from the family home at Santiam Junction. We always believed Ackroyd had something to do with his stepdaughters murder, said Salsbery, who retired in 1996. 'Ghosts of Highway 20': Reader questions answered - oregonlive Rachanda Lea "Chandy" Pickle was a girl who went missing in 1990 in Oregon. Ghosts of Highway 20 As police continued their search of the area around Rachanda's family's home, they would also continue an investigation of the people inside of it. While they had never discovered what had happened to the missing teenager, there was another unsolved case that John Ackroyd was attached to On June 12th, 1992, John Arthur Ackroyd was arrested while at work in Corvallis, Oregon. Few kids lived there andthe ones who didwerent Rachandas age. He is currently serving a life sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem for the Christmas Eve 1978 murder of Kaye Jean Turner near the Metolius River. Because of the time she had been gone - weeks, almost a month now - authorities were fairly certain that even if she was out in the woods somewhere, they were unlikely to save her. The home showed no signs of foul play. Rachanda's brother, Byron, would move to the nearby town of Sweet Home to live with some relatives, while her father, Steve, would eventually move away to Alaska to rid himself of the area.
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