Their childhood friend, Michelle Seiber, said Rachanda wouldnt have dreamed of leaving behind her brother. While the family's home was surrounded by dense wilderness, Rachanda quickly picked up on the area around them. A few witnesses would recall having seen her during her multi-mile jog, but their statements were unable to provide the missing piece of this puzzle. Eight months would pass before investigators discovered what had happened to the missing woman. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, By Alex Paul and Kyle Odegard, Albany Democrat-Herald, Two Albany pharmacies will close their doors next month, Sad ending to story: Lebanon goose killed, Trash, recycling, yard waste pickup day changing in Linn County, Lebanon woman accused of setting fire to her grandparents' house, Albany gas station briefly missed annual report, Waterfront project costs more than Albany anticipated, Update: Man says he set Sweet Home church fire, 'I don't like church', Falls City man sentenced to 8 years in prison for manslaughter, DUII, Mattel introduces first Barbie doll representing a person with Down syndrome, Highway 20 construction prompts these changes between Albany, Corvallis, Police track bullet holes at Sweet Home elementary to neighborhood, LBCC faculty: Budget cut process violated our contract, High school track and field: Dickson quickly climbs the rankings, Philomath man accused of multiple Dollar Tree robberies, 'A legend is born': Kirsten Neuschfer becomes first woman to win historic Golden Globe Race, OSP inmate faces Linn County murder charge. After so many years, though, the edge of that threat had begun to grow dull, and these witnesses were no longer intimidated by a couple of doughy, middle-aged men. However, that wasn't the entire reason. Didnt do anything to Kaye Jean Turner? McAnulty asked, his voice cool. Despite only being charged with one murder, they were being charged with five different counts; each symbolizing a different possible theory in the case. But at the time, he was just fourteen years old, and couldn't have foreseen what was going to happen just days later. The next several days would see extensive searches in the area around the maintenance complex, where Rachanda lived with her mother, brother, and stepfather. Missing From: SISTERS, OR. 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. Detective Jim Salsbery, who oversaw the case, later said that he believed he knew what happened to the missing girl, but he just didn't have the evidence to prove it.
OSP inmate faces Linn County murder charge - Albany Democrat Herald In fall 2013, according to the unsealed court records, Ackroyd agreed not to seek parole and to decline release even if he became eligible in exchange for his no contest plea in his stepdaughter's death. I know that my daughters dead, Steve Pickle said in a 2003 newspaper interview. 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. She introduced the women to him and they climbed in. Linda would consider calling the police that evening, but John - citing the mistaken belief that you needed to wait 24 hours to file a missing person's report - told her to wait until the following day. Rachanda Pickle's brother, Byron Pickle, was consulted during the state's negotiations with Ackroyd, Marteeny said. We spent several days up there several times. Her mother left behind a short list of chores. If she had run away, she had not done so with any of her clothing or makeup. At the time, there was unfortunately no way to tell. Rachanda was Ackroyd's 13-year-old stepdaughter who vanished in 1990 from the family home at the Santiam Junction highway compound. If that would have happened, I would not have any of my kids stay there any longer. But Rachandas distress was clear. She didn't even have a telephone in their home.". Physical evidence proved he had been sexually abusing Rachanda prior to her disappearance. John Ackroyd killed Kaye Turner, he replied. A police photograph shows evidence from the investigation into Kaye Turners murder. Investigators were troubled by John Ackroyds knowledge of Rachandas bra size. Even the pajamas she was last seen wearing were found in her bedroom.
It wasn't even really a confirmation of him committing the crime, but seemed to be more of a refusal to deny it (if that makes sense). The girl who was good about leaving notes if she headed out to play Nintendo at a neighbors house hadnt left one. Case Chandy's stepfather, John Ackroyd, was the last person to have seen her prior to her disappearance. Who was the last person that saw her, do you know?the dispatcher asked the girl's mother. 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. She said no and he left. For a man suspected of murder, Ackroyd was impassive under intense grilling by Salsbery and McAnulty. "That was something that he wanted," said George Eder, chief deputy district attorney for Linn County. Her stepfather was charged with her murder in April 2013. Her mother and stepfather didn't report her missing until the next day. She said no and he left. She had double pierced ears and a scar on her forehead. He would be charged alongside his longtime friend, Roger Dale Beck, who was living in Porterville, California at the time. That winter, Kaye and her husband, Noel, had decided to head up to a cabin in the Camp Sherman area. The interview sputtered to a halt. 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). Ackroyd is a suspected serial killer: he's doing life right now for a 1978 murder (he was convicted in 1994), and is a suspect in two other women's disappearances besides Rachanda's. In the early morning hours of July 10, 1990 John and Linda Ackroyd left their residence at the Oregon Department of Transportation shops at the Santiam Junction in east Linn County, Oregon. He's too much of a calm man.". Ackroyd spun the same story from then on. She said no and he left. Her mother, Linda, would add fuel to this fire by telling reporters with the Statesman Journal a week after her disappearance: "I really fully believe that she was taken without her will.". Making matters even more complicated was Rachanda's father, Steven Pickle, casting doubt on investigators' statements towards the end of July. Rachanda's new stepfather, John, worked as a mechanic for the Oregon Highway Division and had already been living at this maintenance complex for over a decade by the time Linda, Byron, and Rachanda moved in.
'The most difficult part is keeping it in people's minds' | KVAL Ackroyd stopped. 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. My children know they did have an Aunt Rachanda.. Rachanda Pickle didn't want to be alone with her stepfather, John Ackroyd. Middle Name: Lea. 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. Each March 16th from this point forward would mark another year gone, in which the girl's loved ones didn't get to experience what she would have been like as a teenager, and then eventually, as an adult. 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. "We asked the brother what his desire was and his desire to take this deal and . 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 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. As Noelle Crombie writes in Part III of the Oregonian/OregonLive's five-part series. As part of their negotiations, prosecutors pressed Ackroyd to disclose her whereabouts; he refused to say. The two often went to school with bruises, which they attributed to John's abuse. Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan, Producers: Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Steven Wilson, Quil Carter, Travis Scsepko, Laura Hannan, Bryan Hall, Damion Moore, Scott Meesey, Amy Hampton, Scott Patzold, Marie Vanglund, Astrid Kneier, Aimee McGregor, Jo Wong, Sara Moscaritolo, Sydney Scotton, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Rebecca O'Sullivan, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Sally Ranford, Kevin McCracken, Ruth Durbin, Michele Watson, Jared Midwood, Teunia Elzinga, Ryan Green, Jacinda C., Stephanie Joyner, Cherish Brady, and Lauren, Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music, Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves, The Charley Project - Rachanda Lea Pickle, Albany Democrat-Herald - Search continues for teen, Statesman Journal - Linn County teams continue search for missing girl, 13, Statesman Journal - Team extends Santiam hunt for lost girl, Albany Democrat-Herald - Search for girl enters fifth day, Corvallis Gazette-Times - Search for girl continues, Albany Democrat-Herald - Search will extend for missing Linn girl, Statesman Journal - Searchers find no sign of missing 13-year-old, Albany Democrat-Herald - Authorities fear missing girl likely victim of foul play, Spokane Chronicle - Girl, 13, still missing; foul play suspected, Statesman Journal - County will expand search for missing girl, Albany Democrat-Herald - Searchers comb harsh terrain for girl, Statesman Journal - Hunt for Linn teen expands (1), Statesman Journal - Hunt for Linn teen expands (2), Albany Democrat-Herald - Search ends with no trace of girl, Longview Daily News - Searchers give up on missing girl, Albany Democrat-Herald - Search for teen-ager again proves fruitless, Statesman Journal - Clothing discovery spurs new search for Linn teen-ager, Albany Democrat-Herald - Sweatpants found on trail may have belonged to girl, Spokane Chronicle - Pants found; search for girl resumes, Albany Democrat-Herald - Sheriff doubts pants belong to missing girl, Statesman Journal - Search for girl renewed, Corvallis Gazette-Times - Dad thinks missing girl ran away, Statesman Journal - Father of missing Santiam Junction girl says she ran away, Albany Democrat-Herald - Sheriffs office: Nothing new in case of missing girl, The Lebanon Express - Linn girl still gone, Albany Democrat-Herald - Posse to renew search for girl, Corvallis Gazette-Times - FBI joins search for missing girl, Statesman Journal - Linn County seeks FBI help in finding teen-ager, Albany Democrat-Herald - 2 men charged with killing woman in 1978, Statesman Journal - Pair charged with murder of woman 13 years ago, Albany Democrat-Herald - SH man arraigned on murder charges, Albany Democrat-Herald - Detective still looking for missing girl, Albany Democrat-Herald - Sweet Home man on trial, Albany Democrat-Herald - Man convicted in 1978 murder, Statesman Journal - Canyon man guilty in 78 death of jogger, Statesman Journal - Convictions solve 1978 murder, Albany Democrat-Herald - Six years later, search for daughter continues, Albany Democrat-Herald - Skull continues to be puzzle, Albany Democrat-Herald - Skull site searched, Albany Democrat-Herald - Crawfordsville skull sent for DNA testing, Albany Democrat-Herald - Scientists cant get DNA from Crawfordsville skull (1), Albany Democrat-Herald - Scientists cant get DNA from Crawfordsville skull (2), Albany Democrat-Herald - New tip sparks another look into missing girl case, Albany Democrat-Herald - Case of missing Linn girl unsolved (1), Albany Democrat-Herald - Case of missing Linn girl unsolved (2), Albany Democrat-Herald - Stepfather charged in murder of girl in 1990 (1), Albany Democrat-Herald - Stepfather charged in murder of girl in 1990 (2), Albany Democrat-Herald - Ackroyd defense team gets discovery material from DA, Albany Democrat-Herald - Murder suspect wants quick trial, The Nugget Newspaper - Hearing digs up Camp Sherman murder case, Corvallis Gazette-Times - Murder suspect Ackroyd found dead in Salem prison cell, The New Era - Accused murderer of 13-year-old missing girl dies in prison, OregonLive/Oregonian - Oregonian/OregonLive fought to unseal secret deal in Rachanda Pickles killing, Kimberly Riley & Jeremy Britt-Bayinthavong, Paul Skiba, Sarah Skiba, and Lorenzo Chivers, June & Jennifer Gibbons (The Silent Twins). She confided in two girls who were sisters. 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. Two years later, at age 14, she married Beck.
Murder suspect Ackroyd found dead in Salem prison cell But according to the series, investigators always suspected he was also responsible. ALBANY, Ore. - Rachanda Pickle disappeared from her parent's home at the Oregon DOT employee compound at Santiam Junction in July 1990. The dishes werent in the dishwasher and the floor wasnt vacuumed. He asked her if she wanted to go for a drive with him to go and take some pictures of deer in the nearby woods, but that she said no, claiming to have some chores to do around the house. Rachanda Lea Pickle Missing since July 10, 1990 from Sweet Home, Linn County, Oregon. The television was on. We saw no human movement at all; no tracks, no nothing.". Rachanda was a good kid, helping around the house and taking care not to stray far. Within 30 minutes of her mom getting home from work, she'd be right there, hanging on her mom's shirttail". However, these hearings came to an abrupt end after October 4th, 2013. 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. 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. 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. (Mark Ylen/Democrat-Herald). 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. Yet even in those types of cases, the terms of a plea agreement aren't generally secret. 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. If she had been believed, all of these crimes might have been avoided. 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. Twenty-five years have passed since Rachanda's aunt made those remarks, and they remain just as true. Then there are the 1992 murders of Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders, teenagers whose bodies were found months after their initial disappearance. Teams were assigned to 60 subsections and also also searched dozens of dirt roads in the rural, sparsely populated area. Her mother noticed the girls hairbrush, makeup and earrings were still there. He told Linda to wait until the next day to call police.
Linn County Sheriff's Office mounted extensive search for Rachanda Chandy remains missing. In 1990, Rachanda Pickle lived with her mother, brother and stepfather, John Ackroyd. #MISSING: Rachanda Pickle, Linn County, Oregon DOB: 03/15/77 Missing since: July 10, 1990 NAMUS #6529 Linn County Sheriff's Office Case Case Investigator: Detective Mike Harmon (541) 917-6654 Her disappearance triggered one of the larger searches in the Linn Countys history. On Tuesday, April 2, John Ackroyd was arrested and transported to the Linn County Jail for the homicide of Rachanda Pickle.
Murder suspect found dead in Salem prison cell - Albany Democrat Herald Rachanda did not have a cell-phone, no internet connection. Eleven days after Rachanda's disappearance, a pair of hikers found a pair of dark sweatpants along a hiking trail near Big Lake, about five miles away from where the teenager had last been seen. Her bedroom did appear to be a mess, but as Linda would later tell reporters: "Her bedroom looked like an explosion hit it, but that wasn't unusual. Read the story Tagged: The Oregonian Support Longreads She didnt want to be alone with him. Ackroyd made the plea in open court, but then it was immediately sealed at his request. This seemed to leave the case in an unusual spot moving forward since the victim's body had never been found, and now the only suspect had died without the case going to trial. Thats what pulled our relationship together.. While Rachanda was home alone during this period, someone else would claim to see her a few hours after this. They would follow up on these reported sightings - and even talk to people that had been visited campgrounds or hiking trails in the area - but were unable to find any clue pointing to the teenage girl's whereabouts. To some, she seemed lost, almost invisible. They kept their exasperation in check, rarely raising their voices as they combed fine details for any new revelation.