However, as recounted by family members, later on, she never ventured too far out into the woods unless she had her big brother Byron with her. Rachanda stuck close to her mother and rarely strayed from the family home at Santiam Junction. When the dispatcher asked why she hadnt called sooner, Linda said she assumed she had to wait 24 hours to report a missing person. 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. The photograph also shows the girls suitcase hadnt been unpacked after a recent trip to see her father. It was believed that the sweatpants might be hers, sparking another set of searches in that area, but would fail to come up with any additional evidence. Bill Hanlon, the district attorney in Jefferson County, wasnt surprised when the call came from a prosecutor in Linn County, where Ackroyd lived. But they were always short-lived, so I mean, me and my sister had to rely on each other, Byron said. For a man suspected of murder, Ackroyd was impassive under intense grilling by Salsbery and McAnulty. If you have experienced sexual violence and need support, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. Ackroyd worked out of Corvallis and continued to roam the highway. "My guess is the prosecution was in a bind in terms of how tough this case was and so I think when the state has cases that are weak, they tend to pursue creative options," Beloof said. Ackroyd, too, hung out there. (Mark Ylen/Democrat-Herald). Ackroyd made the plea in open court, but then it was immediately sealed at his request. Sometime after he moved, Ackroyd was in his truck with the daughter of an old friend. These bones very well could have been Rachanda's, but they also could have belonged to any other young woman that had been killed in the area. John Ackroyd was her third husband. Former Detective Sgt. She spotted two young women she knew. On 10 July 1990, 13-year-old Rachanda Pickle was last seen inside her mother and stepfather's home in Santiam Junction, Oregon. I lied like hell back then, she told McAnulty. 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. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Rachanda's stepfather, John Arthur Ackroyd, is the last person known to have seen her. Rachandas green nightgown was on her bedroom floor. No, the bewildered dispatcher said, thats not true, not with children., The dispatcher asked: Who was the last person that saw her, do you know?, GONE FROM SANTIAM JUNCTION (Photo 1 of 7): Rachanda Pickle didnt like living at Santiam Junction. The family had lived at the state highway compound for six years. Twenty-five years have passed since Rachanda's aunt made those remarks, and they remain just as true. Ackroyd drove by the woman twice that morning. When he returned to the house at approximately 12:45 p.m., Rachanda had vanished. She feared him and often asked friends if she could spend the night. While Rachanda was home alone during this period, someone else would claim to see her a few hours after this. John Arthur Ackroyd, the longtime suspect in 13-year-old Rachanda Lea Pickle's disappearance, has been arrested and charged with her murder. Michelle Seiber, Rachanda's classmate and friend, had a feeling that her stepdad did something because she was scared of him. The Charley Project is NOT a registered non-profit organization and any donations will NOT be tax-deductible. He claimed he invited her to join him on a drive to photograph deer on back roads near the junction. A dozen or so work crews called the junction home. You do what you need to do to keep a dangerous person incarcerated.". She was 13. Prior to her disappearance, Rachanda and her brother regularly went to school with bruises, and Rachanda told her friends Ackroyd had caused the injuries. A tipster had claimed that Rachanda was still alive, and residing in eastern Linn County. While John had been married to and/or living with Rachanda's mother for approximately six years, he seemed to know very little personal information about the missing girl: he was unable to recall her birthday or other details like that. Detectives refused to name this a cold case, continuing to work on it regularly, but would have very little to show for it after several months. Rachanda Pickle loved her brother, going to school, playing on the playground and helping around the house. It just didnt add up., John Arthur Ackroyd is accused of killing his stepdaughter, Rachanda Pickle, who vanished in 1990. (From this AMA with the Oregonian journalists who investigated the serial killings by Rachanda's stepfather . Rachanda's stepfather, John Arthur Ackroyd, is the last person known to have seen her. After Rachanda disappeared, he and her mother separated, and her mother moved to California and remarried. Linn County Sheriffs detectives Mike Harmon, left, and Paul Timm talk about the arrest of John Akroyd on murder charges. John. Ackroyd had been the lone suspect in his stepdaughter's mysterious disappearance from the home she shared with her mother and Ackroyd at a state highway compound at Santiam Junction. John Ackroyd. Unfortunately, any additional evidence would be hard to come by in this case, and it would remain stagnant for more than a decade until it was revived years later, in the most unlikely of ways. No, what do you think I am? Ackroyd said, his voice rising in rare agitation. The Oregonian/OregonLive went to court to lift a judge's order that had kept secret for years John Ackroyd's unusual plea deal in the death of his 13-year-old stepdaughter Rachanda Pickle. The whereabouts of Rachanda Pickle have never been determined, with none of her friends, family members, or acquaintances having seen her after July 10th, 1990. The girl told her mother she didnt want to return home after a visit to her grandparents. Few kids lived there andthe ones who didwerent Rachandas age. A forensic examination of Turner's clothing revealed that's exactly what had happened, in the exact way described by John Arthur Ackroyd. Rachanda did not have a cell-phone, no internet connection. Police had still not uncovered any sign of her whereabouts, and this conviction seemed to essentially slam the door on any likelihood of her being found alive. Years later, his ex-wife told police Beck and John Ackroyd told her to lie to police about their whereabouts the morning of Kaye's disappearance. Load the dishwasher. It appeared like this skull had belonged to a smaller person - likely a young female - which had a small hole behind the right ear. Her disappearance set off one of the largest search efforts in Linn County history; her remains were never found. He appeared to become sexually aroused when shown a pair of pants that police had found in the woods and initially suspected belonged to Rachanda. The men drove by Santiam Junction, slowing as they passed the eastern edge of the highway compound where Ackroyds manufactured home backed up to the woods. If she had run away, she had not done so with any of her clothing or makeup. Rachanda Pickles mother and stepfather waited 24 hours to report the girls disappearance to 911. The resolution, in this case, would allow closure for the loved ones of Kaye Turner but was little solace for the friends and family of Rachanda Pickle, who had been missing for approximately four years at the time of sentencing. "The settlement reached a point where we were able to have the certainty that he would be in prison forever," Marteeny told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The couple married in the mid-1980s but divorced after a year. At times, the effort included more than 100 deputies and volunteers from Linn, Lane, Benton, Marion, Douglas, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. The two had history that extended to childhood. The girl who was good about leaving notes if she headed out to play Nintendo at a neighbors house hadnt left one. If that would have happened, I would not have any of my kids stay there any longer. But Rachandas distress was clear. Rachanda had gone to visit him shortly before her disappearance, and it was initially theorized that she might have gone out to see him. Police and court records filled a file cabinet in the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office. Ackroyd was finally arrested 14 years after what's believed to be his first killing, the 1978 murder of Turner. He would eventually move back, however, to be closer to family. Then he said he left. Hed pored over Ackroyds police interviews from 1979 when the highway worker admitted he was the last person to see Kaye Turner. McAnulty, whod been promoted to detective just 10 days earlier, dutifully examined old newspaper articles and reports. However, that wasn't the entire reason. Her new husband, John, lived in Santiam Junction, at a state Highway Division maintenance complex at the junction of highways 20 and 22, close to Santiam Pass (an approx. A police photo taken inside the Ackroyd home. The night of RachandaPickles disappearance, John Ackroydinitiated sex with Linda Ackroyd. Rachanda Pickle's brother, Byron Pickle, was consulted during the state's negotiations with Ackroyd, Marteeny said. Doug Beloof, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, said it's unusual for the court to seal a plea agreement. Investigators were already familiar with John because of his history; in particular, his connection to the still-unsolved case of Kaye Turner, the jogger that had gone missing on Christmas Eve back in 1978. In March of 1996, police would investigate the origins of a partial skull recovered near Crawfordsville, about fifty miles east of where Rachanda had last been seen alive. She would eventually remarry and move down to California, where she resides today. Hanlon, whod spent his career practicing law in rural Oregon, knew of Ackroyd from reading a slim three-ring binder stashed in a cardboard box left behind by his predecessor. He thought she was pretty, he said, and noticed that shed begun to develop. This involved search effort would cease their searches after Friday - three days after Rachanda had last been seen alive - but the Linn County Mounted Posse would carry on, and would be joined by employees from the U.S. Forest Service. 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. According to her brother, Byron, she loved fashion and anything that you'd hear on a top-40 radio station. When he returned to the house at approximately 12:45 p.m., Rachanda had vanished. Despite that, however, reporters with Oregon Live and the Oregonian have uncovered information that points to a long reign of terror for this one man, which extended far beyond his two known crimes. Sadly, searches of the area would be unable to come up with any answers; whatever had happened to Kaye Turner, she seemed to have disappeared into thin air. She was a young teenage girl with hopes and dreams, he said. Detective Mike Harmon with the Linn County Sheriff's Office told reporters: "It's difficult to prove that a 13-year-old doesn't exist. Ackroyd would recycle the same stories. One of John Ackroyds coworkers was working on Highway 20 the morning Rachanda disappeared. Middle Name: Lea. We always believed Ackroyd had something to do with his stepdaughters murder, said Salsbery, who retired in 1996. A police photo taken inside the Ackroyd home shows Rachanda Pickle's bra. This includes the 1977 rape of Marlene Gabrielsen, who identified Ackroyd as her attacker at the time, but police chose not to pursue rape charges; instead, taking John at his word when he simply said their encounter was consensual. While this plea deal provided some kind of closure in the case, John Arthur Ackroyd was not required to provide any kind of proof in the murder case of Rachanda Pickle. Linda was getting ready to head to work at Black Butte - near Sisters, about thirty miles east - and asked for some help doing her hair. Her son, Byron, described Ackroyd as a violent man who once beat Rachanda over a broken clock. Another time, they snuck her into their bedroom closet. In 2012, Linn County authorities took another look at her disappearance. Linda and John Ackroyd left for work, she as a housekeeper at Black Butte Ranch, a resort community about 30 minutes away, and he as a highway mechanic. A spokesman with the Linn County Sheriff's Office would dispute this allegation, claiming that there was no evidence indicating Rachanda had run away from home and had likely become a victim of foul play. John's accomplice, Roger Dale Beck, was convicted on almost identical grounds and continues to be housed in the Oregon State Penitentiary. You should know. They werent expected back until afternoon. She was afraid to go home from school; as a . While the case would remain registered as open and/or unsolved in the Oregon state database, there was no movement to proceed with Ackroyd's trial for the murder of Rachanda Pickle. After his stepdaughter went missing, investigators reopened the Turner case and charged Ackroyd. The family had lived at the state highway compound for six years. The Oregonian/OregonLives five-part series on John Ackroyd details crimes that include sexual abuse, rape and murder. We still search for her. Despite the case officially being "solved", the loved ones of Rachanda are left with just as many unanswered questions today as they had back in 1990. The men ate and left to poach deer, not returning until the next day, she said. Over the next few years, investigators would continue to receive reports of potential sightings from the area, including a rather high-profile sighting from August of 1999. It was even alleged that John had been molesting Rachanda, although that remains mostly-unconfirmed years later. In interviews, Ackroyd dwelled on how the teen had gotten her period and had begun to develop. Friends described her as silly and goofy. "Rachanda was. These many months later, John Arthur Ackroyd claimed to have discovered bone fragments while walking his dog in a wooded area nearby. And he wouldnt leave her either. While police had always kept John Ackroyd at the top of their suspect list, they never had enough evidence to pursue charges against anyone. Once, he invited neighbors over to watch horror movies, becoming so animated over scenes of women being chopped up that hed hit rewind again and again. Please subscribe to keep reading. Rachanda was last seen watching television at her family's residence on the Santiam Pass in Sweet Home, Oregon at 10:00 a.m. on July 10, 1990. Michelle Seiber and her sister, Mandy Cook, were friends with Rachanda in elementary school in Sweet Home. Eight months later, Ackroyd reported finding her remains in the woods. Police would begin to reach out to those close to Rachanda and learned that John had been abusive to Rachanda and her brother in the past. A lot of them are awful weird, but a lot are as nice as you can imagine.". 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. For some reason, however, the agreement had been kept confidential for over three years, until after Ackroyd's death. If she was going to plan to run away, she would have taken her makeup and her clothes, but nothing was missing. The home showed no signs of foul play. The prime suspect in the disappearance of a 13-year-old Linn County girl pleaded no contest to murder three years ago as part of an unusual agreement unsealed Wednesday by a Linn County Circuit Court judge. She lives in San Bernardino, California, where she works at a medical supply company. She didnt want to be alone with him. Rachanda Leah Pickle. He said he came home during a break from work and asked Rachanda if she wanted to go for a ride with him. John and Linda checked around with the other families in the maintenance complex for a little bit and were ultimately unable to find any sign of the missing thirteen-year-old. Within weeks, Melissa and Sheila were dead. Plows stood ready to rumble onto the mountain pass during winter storms. He would be charged alongside his longtime friend, Roger Dale Beck, who was living in Porterville, California at the time. While this seems like more of an empty gesture than anything to me personally, prosecutors claimed that this deal - agreed upon in 2013 - would have kept John Arthur Ackroyd behind bars for the rest of his life. In fact, the only clothing that seemed to be missing was a pair of black sweatpants and a white New Kids on the Block t-shirt she had been wearing a lot recently, so it was theorized that she had been wearing those items when she went missing. He basked in attention from police. In the months after Rachanda's disappearance, Rachanda's mother Linda would officially separate from her stepfather John, moving away to Portland. Ackroyd, 67,. When I left, she was laying on the couch watching TV, and I kissed her, and I hugged her and said 'I love you, Channy, and I'll see you later.'". There's certainly the possibility that we've got a crime committed here. While the family's home was surrounded by dense wilderness, Rachanda quickly picked up on the area around them. I know that my daughters dead, Steve Pickle said in a 2003 newspaper interview. Rachanda Lea Pickle Missing since July 10, 1990 from Sweet Home, Linn County, Oregon. He was drawn to Melissa and Sheila, making a point to chat them up. We think the greatest likely scenario is that she's probably out there not of her own volition and is deceased either by violence or nature. His partner, Detective Will McAnulty, sat nearby. Their clothes were spattered with so much blood that she got rid of Becks jeans and shirt. One of the major factors in this determination was that if she had run away, Rachanda had done so without any of her belongings. He wouldnt leave her for nothing.. Until she is brought home and put to rest by her loved ones, the story of Rachanda Pickle will remain unresolved. On the morning of July 10, Rachanda was awake early to help her mother get ready for the day. If she had been believed, all of these crimes might have been avoided. The following spring, a grand jury heard testimony from 17 witnesses, most of them people who knew the girl and Ackroyd. Linda Ackroyd and her young children moved around Springfield and Sweet Home before she settled down with Ackroyd in the 1980s. In the autumn of 2013, Ackroyd reached a plea deal with prosecutors in Rachanda's death. While Kaye and her husband's marriage had been deteriorating, he was incredibly helpful with investigators who attempted to find out what had happened to the missing woman (and provided a definitive alibi). "The settlement reached a point where we were able to have the certainty that he would be in prison forever," Marteeny told The Oregonian/OregonLive. He said he came home during a break from work and asked Rachanda if she wanted to go for a ride with him. John Ackroyd, a longtime state highway worker, died alone in his prison celllate last year while serving a life sentence in another murder. He later told police that when he did return, the front door was partly open, and a pellet gun he owned was propped up against a camper, with a box of pellets nearby. 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. Officials with the Linn County Sheriff's Office would continue to routinely check in on the case over the next several months; typically, whenever they received reports of sightings of Rachanda. John Arthur Ackroyd would remain one of investigators' top suspects in this case, and as a result, would be questioned several times alongside a friend of his (whom police considered a potential accomplice). Ackroyds low libido was the source of such open conflict that Lindas teenage son, Byron, knew of their troubles. Three years would pass, in which this case seemed to just fade from the headlines. Seiber is shown here with her daughter. Ackroyd is eligible for parole, but according to the Linn County Sheriffs Tim Mueller, he has not submitted paperwork to do so. Rachanda had one older brother named Byron, who was a little more than a year older than her, and the two would grow up with their mother, Linda, but would remain close to their father, whom they visited regularly. She said no and he left. As part of their negotiations, prosecutors pressed Ackroyd to disclose her whereabouts; he refused to say. The morning she disappeared, Pickles mother, Linda, had gone to work at Black Butte. Unfortunately, police had been unable to uncover any evidence of the teenager's current whereabouts, so they couldn't speak beyond these generalities without mucking up their ongoing investigation. Within months, without a body or physical evidence implicating Ackroyd, so did the investigation. When youre a young kid used to living in Springfield and you go to the Santiam Junction, its like this is a desolate area.. He's too much of a calm man.". When he returned to the house at approximately 12:45 p.m., Rachanda had vanished. Her stepdad., Ackroyds grim speculation about the harm that had likely come to Rachanda echoed gory stories like the ones hed replay over and over in Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.. Ackroyd did little to look for her and later picked up Linda from work. Cops went to search a storage unit Ackroyd had rented the year before, only to find hed cleared it out days earlier. Lt. Darrel James would later tell reporters with the Albany Democrat-Herald: "You think you're going to find some clothing, a shoe. The plea deal was immediately sealed as per Ackroyd's request, and it didn't become public until March 2017. Maybe they just walked in, seen an opportunity and grasped at it.. She did, and because of this wait, Rachanda wasn't reported missing until Wednesday, July 11th, and the search to find her wouldn't begin until the day after that, Thursday, July 12th. Then Rachanda Pickle, Ackroyd's 13-year-old stepdaughter, disappeared. "I think we've come to the conclusion that we're probably not looking for a live individual.". The home showed no signs of foul play. Both had been seen with John a short time before their deaths, and it's believed that he had taken a liking to them.
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