A person whose lifeless physique was discovered dumped alongside a freeway in Oregon has been recognized after virtually 5 a long time — and authorities imagine a infamous serial killer dubbed the “Scorecard Killer” is linked to the chilly case homicide.
Oregon State Police introduced Friday that they’d recognized Larry Eugene Parks because the 30-year-old John Doe discovered useless on Interstate 5 on July 18, 1980.
An investigation into the grisly discovery was launched on the time, but it surely went chilly till final month, when new proof led authorities to the veteran’s identification.
In Jan. 2024, a blood pattern from Parks, a Vietnam veteran who misplaced contact along with his household a 12 months earlier than his demise, led investigators to seek out potential members of the family.
Detectives positively recognized him utilizing the genetic profile, police stated.
“Until his identification last month, the circumstances of his disappearance were unknown to the Parks family,” police stated.
Randy Kraft, often known as the “Scorecard Killer,” is the one particular person underneath investigation for the 1980 killing, Oregon State Police spokesperson Kyle Kennedy stated.
“There’s some evidence that we’re processing to determine that link,” Kennedy stated, in keeping with native studies. “We are very confident that we have the correct person of interest.”
Kraft, now 80, has already been convicted of brutalizing and killing 16 males over a decade in Orange County, California. The killer can also be a suspect in a whopping 60 different slayings throughout the West Coast and Michigan, cops stated.
“With Parks’ identity confirmed, investigators are now working to bring resolution to the 45-year-old case,” police stated.
Kraft was arrested in 1983 after a California Freeway Patrol officer performed a site visitors cease on him and located a useless male sufferer, later recognized as Terry Lee Gambrel, within the entrance seat.
Within the trunk was a scorecard checklist of Kraft’s different 67 potential victims, resulting in his nickname.
In 2023, the demise of an Iowa teen in 1974 was additionally linked to Kraft, the Orange County Sheriff’s Division beforehand stated.
Kraft stays incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Heart.
