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Hello and welcome to the true crime podcast beyond the ferns with your host Susie buckle up Things are about to get a little scary welcome, welcome. I am so happy to have everyone here. I'm happy to start off this podcast explaining my intention behind it. I, Susie, have always been extremely interested in true crime. Everything from the act itself, to the psychology behind it, to what makes a serial killer a serial killer. What brings them to that moment in time where they're committing these heinous acts? Who are the victims? What are the crimes? The trials. Everything in between, from the start to the end, that has been my biggest interest, and that is what I want to provide you throughout these episodes. And while I was exploring cases and figuring out what I wanted to start off with, I wanted to really stay within the state of Oregon, the state I currently reside in, and I stumbled across the Malola forest killer. I was extremely intrigued by this case because it was near where I live. It was a case I had never heard before, yet it was someone that had taken so many lives in such a violent and extremely confusing way. And as I'm researching this case, the main takeaways from it is the amount of justice throughout his years of committing these crimes. No punishment really ever fit the crime until it was absolutely too late and he had committed so many. So this is a real doozy. I want to apologize ahead of time. However, without further ado. I'm going to bring you the Malola forest killer, Dayden Leroy Rogers. Buckle up and get ready for this one. Who is Dayton Leroy Rogers? Dayton Leroy Rogers was born September 30, 1954, in Moscow, Idaho, to parents Jasper L, which was his mother, and Ortiz, his father. Dayton was one of seven siblings. He had a huge family, two biological sisters, three adoptive sisters, and an adoptive brother. With all of these kids, with this bigger family, obviously they need to have an abundant amount of money coming in. Ortiz was the sole provider for the family. He took on several odd jobs as a baker, a painter, and sometimes a teacher at religious based schools, while Jasperell stayed at home with the kids. When it comes to the family, Jasperell was the one with the picturesque idea of the big family. She always wanted a lot of kids. Well, if it was up to Ortiz, he wouldn't have had kids at all. He just wasn't into the idea. But he wanted to appease his wife, so he went along with the idea. Given that Ortiz never wanted kids, it shouldn't come to much surprise that he wasn't a great father. And actually, if we're being honest, he was a terrible father. Ortiz believed in very strong, I'm doing air quotes right now, discipline. Why I'm quoting it is because it is undoubtedly straight abuse that he inflicted on his kids on a day to day basis. In later years, Dayton's brother in law spoke to the abuse. He said, quote, I saw Dayton punished almost every time I was in the house. He was hit with a belt, slapped, or punched. Every time I visited with the family, it seemed there was some kind of punishment. On one occasion, Dayton was forced to sit in a chair as Ortiz punched his legs with his hands and fist. Then everyone would sympathize with Ortiz when he had broken a blood vessel in his hand from hitting Dayton. Dayton wouldn't even move his hands to protect himself. As you can see, there's a major problem with abuse in this household. Obviously with the abuse in general, but the amount of the extreme abuse. And in cases like this, you generally hear a parent apologize because they know they lost control. That they did something so horrific. However, Ortiz never once apologized for inflicting this kind of abuse onto his kids. While researching this case, I was curious to find where Jasperelle was in all of this. Did she look away? Did she try to interject during these situations? Or even did she receive the abuse herself by Ortiz? But there wasn't much found, and after reading some interviews by detectives in later years, when detectives were interviewing Jasperelle, She did speak to the father son relationship between Ortiz and Dayton. She said she always wanted Ortiz to warm up to Dayton, to be more fatherly. Quote, to do things with Dayton like a lot of fathers do, but he just wasn't a pal with Dayton as I wished. Okay, so I have a real hot take on this Jas Burrell stating that Ortiz. never warmed up and they were never pals. I object. I think that is absolutely ludicrous that any parent relationship would be a parent having to warm up to a child in any way. And if I'm remembering correctly, parents are the ones that decide to bring children into the world, not vice versa. With that comes less of a warm up and more of a, I'm going to throw my whole body and soul into raising this child. And I think that's a lot of the reason why we see these huge issues within their family is not only is Ortiz abusing his children, but Jasper L is viewing these relationships as something that needs to be earned. rather than something that just is. As you can see, not that Dayden, gets any kind of pass at all on his crimes, but from the onset of his childhood, it was very chaotic. He didn't have a lot of support by any of his parents. And if those are your main role models, then obviously, There's going to be a huge disconnect, with those major close bonds, your first bonds you have entering into the world. Wish that the only thing I had to tell you about Ortiz Well, I guess not wish, but I wish it ended there with Ortiz, that he was just a violent asshole, that Dayton came out of it, that he learned, he grew, but again, I wouldn't be doing this episode if that was the case. There was also more contributions that Ortiz passed down to his son, and that was one of his views on sex and his sexual desires. Now, his sexual desires were ones that he felt he had entitlement to. Ortiz never once thought that he had to ask for sex. A. K. A. consent. He thought of it as an immediate need. Not a want. He thought of it as eating, breathing. That was where he put sex on the totem pole of what was important to him. He thought of it as a demand and a woman's responsibility when it came to that of a relationship. The ugly truth here was that Ortiz held the belief that women were always to be submissive, never have sex before marriage, and worse yet, if Ortiz knew of someone that had sex before marriage, he would refer to them in the most derogatory terms, oftentimes not even hiding his dismay around his young kids. With this, he's thinking of these women as subhuman, As subpar of not worthy of less than and he's projecting those beliefs onto each one of his kids. When we look at Ortiz thoughts on the matter, and we really dismantle these thoughts and look at them for what they are, his main thing was women aren't shit, women are less than, anybody that has sex is shit. An HOE, anybody that has sex before marriage is definitely an HOE. Of course, if you're young, impressionable, blank canvas mind, you're going to take that influence and those very obscure views, and you're going to run with them. It's not surprising that Dayton's criminal acts were ones that were fueled by sexual desire and violence. And not to contribute everything to Dayton's childhood, because he's not just his childhood, right? But there's a lot of things that come into factor here. There's a high likeliness that he developed a lot of these traits and those takeaways as a young child. I do want to emphasize regardless of Dayton's childhood, regardless of the young Dayton, the adult Dayton and the one that did all of these criminal acts is clearly a monster. However, if we do look at this childhood, we can see a common denominator and those contributions to that blank slate canvas that we get as babies and how a lot of things were piled up against him at the very start of his life. Now, one would ask, can his parents parent worse than they are right now? And to that, I am going to say, yes, yes, they indeed do. And yes, they indeed can. Because not only there was the abuse and the sex and the beliefs around the sex, there was also a huge belief around religion. I'm going to also put religion in quotes here because although Jasperel and Ortiz were members of Seventh Day Adventist Church, that obviously wasn't the issue here at all. the issue was when they claimed that all of their children had evil entities inside of them. You heard that right. They all claimed that their children had what seemed like a demon presence within each one of them. It was the belief by Jasperell and Ortiz that for their children to get rid of the demon that was currently housed inside of them, they would need to attend seventh day Adventist school. If you keep the religion up, you're keeping the demon out. They decided all of their kids needed to be within schools, consistently working on this. So this is troubling. I can't even imagine being six, seven, eight years old and thinking that I'm currently absorbed by a demon entity with inside of me. Thinking that there's not much that I can do besides go to a school and hope that it cures me. Of course, I don't know how a child can't be fucked up from this. To ride this point even more, close your eyes. And just be the age that you are right now. Your age hasn't changed, you're not younger, you're not older. You're just your given age right now. And somebody tells you that you have a demon inside of you. How on earth is that not the most troubling thing? I don't know about you, but like, there's a lot of things that shock me, but having a full blown demon inside of me? That, that's at the top of the list. That is, that is out of this world. Now I'm 32. So I think it's out of this world. If I was 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Can you imagine? How they must be feeling. Because at this point, their brains are sponges. They believe, whatever they're being told. Of course they do. They don't have prior experiences to be based off of. And It just goes to show that that was just another thing that Jasper L and Ortiz fear based inflicted upon their kids if that wasn't enough for these children to endure. Their life was clearly unstable in those ways, but clearly unstable in the fact that they were never in a place long enough to make any kind of social connections. Ortiz followed work wherever he could, picking up these odd jobs, and they typically moved between three to four times a year. I read somewhere that Dayton was uprooted 33 times. All throughout states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and Ortiz really followed wherever the work was, so it meant uprooting their kids and having to start schools all over again. Being a child and making friends is so essential, so these kids, every time they got to a school and they started forming bonds, it was time for them to move again. Those crucial bonds, those crucial looks at friendships and being able to connect with another person and care about another person, because Let's be honest, they're, at least Ortiz didn't give a shit about them, you know, that was taken away from them. Aside from the moving, Ortiz and Jasperell were known to deeply believe in the Armageddon. They would move to smaller rural areas outside the, quote, wicked big city influence. Their words, not mine. These rural areas typically had no electricity. They were trailers on small properties far away from any civilization, and sometimes in cars until they were able to find housing. One time it was noted that they even resided in a chicken coop with a dirt floor. At this time, Dayden was 12 or 13 years old when his family uprooted to College Place, Washington. Ortiz had found a job in a bakery owned by some of his relatives, and Dayden from time to time would help his dad around the bakery shop. Dayden was attending Walla Walla Valley Academy. By all records, he was a pretty average student. He was capable of excelling further in school, but he really was never into school. He found it to be boring and craved more excitement outside of the four walls. Dayton's first run in with the law was in seventh grade at the age of 13 Him and his friend were looking to have a little fun, so BB gun and started shooting at cars and motorists passing by. No one was documented to be injured from this act. However, Dayton was met with probation and of course, outrageous abuse from his father. In response to this trouble that Dayton had gotten into, Jasperell and Ortiz felt it was only necessary to send Dayton into the Upper Columbia Academy located in Spangle, Washington, near Spokane. They were hopeful that this change in environment would provide some positive change in trajectory for his teenage years. Now, of course, move after move and these consistent uproots to different areas played a major role in the decline of his grades and the lack of support from Ortiz and Jasper L. With another move under their belts and another school environment to navigate on his own, Dayton's grades became blatantly worse. Against his parents urges to continue his schooling, Dayton did end up dropping out his sophomore year at the age of 16. He was eager to have more control over his life and no longer wanted to withstand the constant turmoil and unstable environment under his parents roof. Not much was documented for these first two years living outside of his parents house between the ages of 16 to 18, but it's said that he lived a pretty quiet and uneventful life until he moved at the age of 18 to Eugene. If only that time between the ages of 16 and 18 translated to the rest of his life, would I not have to be here talking right now to you about Dayton. But here I am, and so we will get into his early adulthood. Transcribed now, during this time that Dayton had moved out, it's unknown to what extent Dayton was in communication with his parents and siblings. But in 1972, he did begin dating a girl by the name of Julie. She was 16 years old and she was of Lutheran faith.. Dayton's parents did have a strong reaction to this. They discouraged it, they did not want him dating her, and they sure as hell did not want Dayton marrying her. But, just a few short months later, Dayton and Julie did get married in that same year, 1972. It took Dayton literally 30 days of being married to Julie before his eyes began to wonder again. In August of the same year, Dayton met a woman by the name of Denise Raymond. I'm going to do a quick recap of the ages here. Denise is 15 years old. Dayton's wife is 16 years old. And Dayton is 18 or 19 at this point. Again, Denise is 15. Gross. Sick. Find someone your own age. Stop being a disgusting human. That's all. Before we get into this incident, I do want to note that this is a common occurrence and pattern for Dayton to date young, young girls. We're talking below the age of 18. And this is the type of person he goes for. You have to think they're impressionable, they're young, they're naive. A lot of them are in vulnerable situations or in a vulnerable lifestyle, easily swayed, All of these kind of things and Daden seeks that out. He preys on it and he is a huge predator. All to say, this leads me to the first victim, Denise Raymond. Denise and Dayden had hung out one time before this day. Dayden had an interest in Denise and wanted to take her out to a park in the woods to make whistles for the neighborhood children. If that's not a panty dropper, I don't really know what is. Um, when they arrived to the woods, they started becoming physical, talking, you know, Connecting, all of those things. As they're making out, doing whatever they're doing, it wasn't before long that Denise felt what she thought was a bite of a rattlesnake. She felt this immediate pain. In her stomach, she wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but as she looks down, she sees a knife handle protruding out of her stomach, a knife handle protruding from her stomach. Denise realizes in that instance that she has been stabbed. Bewildered at what she was feeling and experiencing in this moment, she looked over to Dayden for some kind of response or some kind of explanation as to what was happening. Dayden looked her directly in the eyes and said, I just couldn't trust you. Denise Responded almost immediately saying as calmly as she could. I love you. Denise decided in that split second from the knife going in to responding that in order to get out of this situation as, you know, best as she could, because at this point she's clearly injured. However, she realizes it could get much worse if she doesn't play it cool. So she gives herself any chance of survival here. And as she's doing that, she's trying to kind of woo him with the I love yous and of course nots and Dayton responded with immediately after that, Oh my God, what did I do? As if this attack couldn't have been more strange or confusing, Dayton decided to take it up another notch and ask Denise, as the knife is still in her stomach, If she would marry him, Denise's response, I need to go to the hospital, clearly. Denise and Dayton are looking at each other, confused all of the things, and Dayton is concerned that she is going to immediately tell the doctors at the hospital what happened to her. Which, I don't really know how she couldn't because she has a whole ass knife in her stomach. But Dayton is very concerned that she's going to rat him out to everyone at the hospital. He's pleading with her, Denise, please do not tell anyone of this. Please make up a story. Do anything. I don't want to get in trouble. Upon arrival to Sacred Heart General Hospital, Denise, scared for retaliation, told a story far from the truth. Denise explained she inflicted this wound on herself with a hunting knife. Now, she was being seen by Dr. White, who was the medical physician for Denise at the time, and found this explanation highly unlikely and had his own doubts about the validity. Having met Dayton moments earlier as he was dropping Denise off at the hospital, Dayton said he discovered the girl on the side of the road walking in intense pain and bleeding perfusively. Dr. White's information was shared with Officer Norenberg and Dayton was contacted for further questioning on the matter. Dayton immediately claimed not knowing Denise outside of one interaction. He claimed Denise was hitchhiking and Eugene. And he gave her a ride home. Dayton thought she was attractive and wanted to meet with her again. But after several drop ins at her home with no luck, it was such destiny that he ran into her while he was driving. But he was astonished that she was in intense pain and bleeding from her stomach. Of course, Officer Norenberg did not believe Dayton's story whatsoever. However, with not much to go off of, the report was taken and Dayton was allowed to leave. Meanwhile, in the hospital, Denise provided several iterations to her story, still completely terrified to tell the whole truth I can truly fathom with Denise, for one, I can't even imagine the amount of stress she was experiencing at this time, having just been attacked and then having to be in fear of retaliation from Dayton. Clearly this person is not in his right mindset. So telling the actual truth would have been an absolute scare, an absolute, terrifying situation. Denise kept on telling a story, changing her story, but omitting the actual truth. Luckily, Denise's mother was there and she knew that her daughter was lying and not telling the full truth. With some coaxing and support, Denise finally told the actual truth and shared her stories with law enforcement. Law enforcement didn't have a general idea of who Dayton was at this point, because up until now, he had no run ins with the law besides his little BB gun incident when he was 13. When they brought him into the interrogation room, they really had no idea what they would be working with. They were ready for whatever battle was ahead of them because it really truly was a mystery of who this Dayton character was. While they're asking him questions, Dayton is completely nervous. Color is leaving his face. Detective Miller continues to question him for the true story. And Dayton decided to share the same untrue story that he was sticking to throughout all of this. That story was that he had met Denise initially while she was hitchhiking one day, he picked her up. He dropped her off at her house. He did not know her whatsoever, but he knew he had an interest in seeing her again. He remembered her address. He went back there. He tried to speak with her. He failed. He tried again. He failed. And then the serendipitous moment introduced itself when he was driving one day and out of the blue corner of his eye, he sees Denise. She's walking in obvious pain on the sidewalk, walking towards him. Crazy. How does that happen? So he was like, you know what I have to do? I have to come to her rescue. She needs me. Detective Miller interjected with, Come on, Dayden, we talked to the girl. He pushed the button on the recorder where Denise's voice told the story of attack, word for word. Dayden was shitting his pants at this point and shock at what he was hearing and concerned for what was next for him. So he began to break down. Dating claimed that his infidelity was due to Julie, his new wife, being young and having a difficult time adjusting to marriage. He felt this was a way he could have a friend to confide in, but one thing led to another and he insisted the sex prior to this day was consensual. Not true. She is 15. Dayton claimed he must have been taken over by the devil and that he was not planning to do anything in the woods with Denise besides confide in her. Okay, I have discovered I need a hot take button because I have another hot take. Looking at this, if we're really dissecting this incident, one could say, looking at his childhood, maybe he thought he had a demon inside of him. Maybe he really still thinks he's been taken over by the devil and he's fully encompassing that narrative that he was fed as a child. I, for one, personally think that he is full of shit. I think this was a way for him to forego any responsibility for the attack. I think he knew damn well what he was doing. He knew that he had escalated. He knew he had screwed up. In that moment. We see it all the time. I'm gonna blame something outside of myself that I wasn't in my right mind. I'm gonna play the blackout card. I'm gonna play the sociopath card. I'm gonna blame the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus. Anything to forego responsibility is what he's doing here. And that is a fact. Just kidding. It's my opinion. But we all know it's kind of true. Now, whether Dayton wanted to take ownership for the fact on Denise and claim that he wasn't fully cognizant, it doesn't matter. Despite all of that, it is clear that he participated and inflicted the attack against Denise. When asked Denise's belongings were, Dayton even volunteered his services. He said, I'll take you exactly to the area in which It happened, and I'll show you her clothing. What else do you need? Everything occurred here. Dated showed them to the site where this attack took place. After the case was looked into, investigated and documented, Dayden did receive a first degree assault charge. He was released on bail. However, it did not stick, and Dayden did plea bargain to receive a second degree assault, which he was granted, at which point he was only given four years of probation. This is extremely discouraging and this is also a testament to what you will see throughout this case when it comes to law enforcement fitting the punishment to the crime. This sets the ultimate precedence for what you will see as a long line of offenses with very mediocre punishment attached to them. Now there is something very important that I am happy that came out of this situation, and it's a proper examination and evaluation of Dayton. After the attack on Denise Raymond, at the request of Lane County District Attorney Robert K. Naslin, they did ask for Dayton to participate in his first psychiatric examination on October 27, 1972. And this examination was performed by Dr. J. Allen Cook of Eugene, Oregon. I did want to note what Dr. Jay Cooke said in his evaluation after speaking with Dayton. There was no evidence during the interview that his judgment was impaired, and he seemed to have significant levels of psychiatric insight. It is in my opinion that the defendant at this time does not have a mental disease or defect, which would form the basis for an adequate defense against the charges of first degree assault under Oregon statutes. It is Noted during the psychiatric examination that the defendant consistently maintained that he was in complete awareness of those mental faculties and denied being under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, which would alter his mental status or state of consciousness. I Feel the defendant falls into the classification of depressive neurosis, probably superimposed on a longstanding schizoid personality disorder. There is no suggestion at the present time, nor at the time of the alleged crime, that either of these emotional disorders would render the defendant incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, of being aware of the criminality of an assaultive act or diminish his degree to form intent to commit such an act. There it is, folks. From a doctor himself, Dayton had full control of his mental faculties. He knew it was wrong. He wasn't in a state of blackout or not being able to know what he was doing. He was present during this crime. Now, some would think that someone being charged with such a horrific act and facing real prison time would start to think, I should probably get my act together. Maybe turn over a new leaf. As not a huge shock, Dayden did not do any of that, and he continued down his path of violence. When it came to his marriage with Julie, Dayton always held tightly to his innocence surrounding Denise Raymond. However, that claim was very unlikely only six months later when Dayton attacked two other teenagers. It was unknown as to why, but Dayton and Julie had taken in two teenagers that were listed as runaways into their home, and quickly Dayton developed a liking towards both of these teens. Julie must have caught on to what was happening because quickly there was a huge fight that broke out and Julie eventually ended up leaving Dayton and moving in with a couple roommates during this time. Dayton's drinking is beginning to escalate and escalate and escalate. And as this is happening, he all of a sudden feels that Julie needs to return and that he is going to go find her and bring her back. Upon arriving at the place that Julie was currently staying at, dating quickly escalated and pleaded for Julie to come back home. That pleading led to screaming and yelling, and Julie's roommates decided to step in and intervene. To Dayton's surprise, Julie's roommates were two men. And that made Dayton even more irate. This broke into a huge fistfight and Dayton told all three of them that if he ever saw them again, he would kill them all. Aside from all of this, clearly Dayton's becoming unhinged, but to the dismay of Julie and Dayton, Julie did return home soon after. It's to no surprise that when Julie returned home, nothing really changed. Julie and Dayton's marriage continued to plummet and things were beginning or continuing to be very, very toxic. One night, Julie decided to leave for the evening and Dayton was left alone with these two teenage girls. Dayton's drinking continued to be excessive throughout this time. And it was noted that Julie felt very uncomfortable around the idea of Dayton being left with these two girls. However, I feel like at this point, Julie was just kind of over Dayton shit and needed a night to herself. And that's when this night specifically Showed law enforcement again, the type of person that was so blatantly obvious that was Dayton Rogers. And during this specific event on August 1st, 1973, Without warning, he took one of his beer bottles that he had just finished drinking and started to attack the two teens over the head, hitting them repeatedly. Now, it's very strange because with the Denise situation that we just went over, the same thing kind of happened here. It's as if he snapped and then realized what he did. Was appalled by what he did and decided he needed to completely get away. It's as if he went from black to white, just completely flew into some kind of state and then came back out astonished at what he had done. In my opinion, I feel it's an outburst of rage. Think of when you drop a bottle and then you try to take the cap off right after and it explodes everywhere. That is how I feel Dayton's emotions are at this point. They're so internalized that they come out in this way. Dayton is enraged. He's beating these two girls over the head with a bottle. And all of a sudden he stops and he sprints off to his car. He jumps into his Camaro and starts driving. Luckily, Dayden's poor attempt to flee the scene resulted in him crashing into a nearby vehicle. It became easy for police officers to arrest him on the spot. Dayden was charged with one count each of second and third degree assaults in connection with the attacks on these teenagers. It became obvious to law enforcement after Denise Raymond and the attack on these two teenagers that Dayton needed help. He needed way more than a slap on the wrist and probation. They arranged a time to meet with Dr. George C. D. Kutcher, a psychiatrist, on September 6th, September 30th, and October 2nd of 1973. Now, a series of tests and in depth interviews of Dayton were taken place and at this point he was appropriately labeled as a sociopath. Dr. Kajir wrote in his diagnosis that Dayton manifested pseudo sociopathic schizophrenia with antisocial traits he quoted, there's a strong possibility that the evidence for schizophrenia, as previously suspected, has been an every instant fake. And that this man presents a case purely of sociopathic personality of the antisocial variety. He went on to say, because of his youth and his conscious awareness towards his misconduct, it is possible that even in the latter diagnostic category, he may be amenable to the treatment to psychotherapeutic counseling and training. It is my opinion that the defendant is in need of treatment. Since the three episodes of assault were also related at least superficially to sexual activity, he should be also defined as sexually dangerous person. It is strongly recommended that Mr. Rogers receive intensive therapy from an inpatient unit and that substantial proof of his cure be demanded by the court prior to his release. At this time, Dayton was petitioned by prosecutors of the court. They ended up revoking his probation and prison sentence. The Lane County Circuit Court Judge Helen Frye found that Dayton was not guilty by reason of insanity, and he was admitted to Oregon State Hospital in Salem on March 6, 1974. Dayden's in the hospital as he should be because clearly the probation, the allowing him to be out in society, is just not working. Upon entering the state hospital, Dayden realized very quickly how to play the game in hopes of getting out early. He first was placed in a maximum security ward. Number 34. And he flew under the radar for the most part. Only two weeks later, he was moved to Ward 63, which was a medium security ward. And after displaying that he could get along with others and cause zero trouble, he was entered into the sex offender group, and transferred one last time to Ward 82, which was a very minimum security ward. For looking at all of these time frames, that's literally within a couple months, he was already at the minimum security ward. During his time in sex offender groups, he held onto the reality of, quote, when fantasizing, when he was in control of his here and now activities, and when he was hallucinating, he lost contact with the reality. of the here and now. He felt compelled to finish what he had started in these acts, and his actions became automatic at this point. What he's sharing with his group was really, he had no control over his sexual desires or his actions. Now can I ask you, does that sound like his father? It is truly wild to me how many traits he has of Ortiz's. Ortiz's, that sounds so funny. But seriously, he has so many traits of his father, from the sexual desires of non consensual acts to his volatile behavior. It is just wild. During Dayton's stay at the Oregon State Hospital, Julie did decide to divorce Dayton and move out to California. Not being able to take rejection easily, Dayton decided to do the unthinkable. He called Julie's parents. Now, he called them, And he claimed he had got in his life together. No worries, Julie's parents, things are good. Everything's good. It's crazy. I actually just became a doctor and I can make good money now. And I can, you know, provide for Julie. Everything will be fine. Clearly I got to give it to my guy. He got a doctor's degree in what? Eight months in the Oregon state hospital. That's an achievement. Props to him. Now, Julie's parents called bullshit, as one would. Knew he was completely talking out of his ass, asked for him not to contact them again. Julie, on the other hand, was disturbed by Dayden's mindset at this point, so she decided to discontinue any kind of talking with Dayden and continue on her life. Dayton's time in the state hospital was very close to perfect. He had not gotten into any trouble. He had leveled up every security ward down to minimum security within a few months. So, He was considered a model prisoner. After only eight months of serving time in the Oregon State Hospital, he was awarded the right to obtain employment and leave the hospital during the day to work as a furniture painter. In addition to employment, he regularly attended church, befriending a local pastor. And to the public eye, it looked as if Dayton was making major strides to get his act together. But spoiler alert, this wouldn't last long. Before anyone could call it what it was, fake or otherwise, Dr. J. H. Trevelyan, Clinical Director of the Hospital Psychiatric Security Ward, said, quote, Dayton appears to be recovered from his mental illness. to the degree that he is no longer a menace to himself or others. He is no longer in need of hospital treatment, and there it was, Dayton was released into society once again. Despite the psychiatric evaluations throughout his stay on December 12, 1974, in the same year he arrived at the facility. he returned back to society once again. Once Dayton was discharged from the hospital, he found himself in a predicament as he no longer had a home because his relationship with Julie had ended. He contemplated for a bit about heading back to Eugene to be closer to family, but ultimately decided against this due to the frequent instability of his family's relationship. Dayton decided to continue living in Salem and was able to get room and board with the pastor whose services he frequented during his time at the state hospital. Just a few months after moving in with the pastor, he met a woman by the name of Sherry Miller. Now, Sherry was a lot like Julie.. Unfortunately, the sleazeball had a type. This was the kind of personality he preyed upon. She was impressionable, inexperienced, young, and deeply committed to her religious beliefs. Sherry lived in a nearby town of Canby, and she came from a very close knit family that was all to say pretty supportive of their relationship from the start. Soon after they became dating, they moved to Woodburn, Oregon, a town nearby between Salem and Portland.. This town was closer to proximity to Sherry's family, and during their courtship, onlookers would agree that their relationship was apparently flourishing into something special. But we know Dayton and we know the ugly truth that happens with him, which is Dayton's never okay with just one woman. He continued to seek sex on the side right from the beginning of their relationship, just like he had with Julie. Despite this awful truth, Sherry and Dayton got married October 25th, 1975.. Now, despite the obvious cheating, the marriage was doomed from the onset because right as Dayden and Sherry got married, Dayden lost his job. He had completely depended on Sherry's family to keep them afloat and his normal habits of substance abuse like alcohol and drugs quickly started up again, which also in turn increased his frequency to local bars and restaurants to spot women and try to pick them up. And this became the normal for Dayton. The more Dayden's increase of his voids of alcohol and substance abuse took off, the search for sex outside of Sherry was his number one priority. And Sherry obviously gained suspicious on his whereabouts, and one night decided to bring it up. Now upon her bringing this up, it blew up into a major argument between the two, and Dayden stormed out of the house, leaving Sherry questioning where he was going. I mentioned at the beginning when Sherry and Daden had gotten married that they did end up relocating closer to Sherry's family. So at this point they were located in Eugene. When the fight blew up, Daden wasn't really sure where he wanted to go that night, but he did know staying home with Sherry wasn't an option on the table. At least not something he planned on doing since the heated blow up between them. Instead, he got into his car and drove the one hour trip from Eugene to Salem. He was used to the Salem area. He was used to the town. So he thought he might as well blow off some steam there. He arrived to Salem fairgrounds around 1 a. m. And Dayden being, well, Dayden, prowled the area. And as he's driving around, he stumbles across a lone car. And he looks, kind of peers his way from his car into. The loan car and sitting inside was a young woman, so he parked directly in front of her car got out, started walking towards the driver's side. Dayden threw on a smile, gleaming as he put on his charm. He stated, quote, Hi, I'm from Eugene. Where does everyone go to have fun around here? I don't know my way around town. Joke's on you, Dayden. You've lived in Salem a long time. But Cindy didn't know this, of course. The person that was inside of the car. Cindy Jones was drawn in immediately by Dayden's seemingly innocent tactics. Being that she was bored, she welcomed the distraction and attention. She told him that most places were 21 and up, but due to her being 18, she got carded often. Since she thought her chances of getting into bars was slim, she decided to kill time at the fairgrounds. Cindy elaborated that usually she worked as a waitress, but recently she was unemployed. Due to the unemployment, she had to move back into her parents place. She knew she didn't want to go back home, but didn't want her night to end quite yet. Dayton, finding the opportunity of this young woman. Not wanting to go home, it being late, and also not having a lot of money, he thought it was the perfect opportunity to pray. And Dayton offered his common line, like many other times before, offering to buy some beer, smoke some marijuana, and drive around for a bit. Cindy thought it sounded fun and was better than what she was doing currently, so she accepted his offer, and off they went in Dayton's car. After a little driving around, their conversation kept jumping from topic to topic, eventually leading to Cindy's interest in adopting a dog. She spoke to wanting to adopt this dog for a Christmas present for her parents. However, Cindy felt she wouldn't be able to afford this dog breed because she had no money coming in at the moment. Dayton, quick to find any lead to get Cindy to a secluded location, shared that, Whoa, this is crazy. My aunt and uncle, they live in Woodburn, short distance away, and we're selling that exact breed of puppies that you're interested in. But, but here's the kicker. They're selling it for a fraction of the average market price. Ugh. So Cindy hears this, considering she was low on money, Dayton mentioned that if she went with him to get one right now, he would give the dog to her for free. Up until now, to Cindy, Dayton had seemed as trustworthy as one can be having just met a few hours earlier, and being that Cindy was astonished that the stars were aligning, So well with Dayden and the offer, she again did not hesitate to go along with him. It's important to note that Dayden's victims always had the common denominator of being in need of money, of being vulnerable. Even if Cindy wasn't like some of the other victims in terms of employment, Dayden had prowled upon that she was young. and at a disadvantage financially. After a short drive, Dayton and Cindy entered a gravel road about one third mile west of Knights Bridge Road in Canby. Dayton stopped the car and Cindy looked through the window of the car and noticed there was no house lights in sight. No explanation from Dayton on why they were in this area, clearly far from any kind of residency. Cindy suspicions grew by the minute. Dayton pulled out a beer and began drinking. Cindy was nervous to ask why Dayton had taken her here and why this didn't fit the original plan. However, she stayed quiet for some time, hoping Dayton would break the silence and clear up the situation. Sadly, this would be another attack by Dayton. Roughly 30 minutes later into Dayton chugging one beer after another, without warning, he grabbed Cindy and forced her to the backseat. Much like his earlier victims, he bounded her wrist and feet, this time with electrical wire, tying them tightly. He then forcefully sexually assaulted her for several hours. Cindy pleading for him to stop. During this altercation, you know, after several hours of this happening, Cindy asked if she could go to the bathroom. what's really wild to me is you'll see this in other circumstances with Dayton. He'll do such a heinous act repeatedly and then he will grant This request to his victims, like, okay, go, yeah, go ahead. Go to the bathroom. And that's exactly what happened here with Dayton. He allowed for her to leave the back seat and to go outside. Cindy walked a few yards from the car and then took off in a full blown sprint. But to her surprise, Dayton didn't follow her. And Cindy ran as fast as she could to the nearest house, banging on the front door, pleading for someone to answer. Thankfully, the neighbor answered shortly after and immediately upon seeing the beyond traumatized face of Cindy, they called the police at 5 11 a. m. Deputy police officer, Wayne C. Flint and Hugh M. Sweeney of Clackamas County Sheriff's department were dispatched to the house. It was here where Cindy explained the assault in its entirety, and Canby police were said to have already been sent to the area where the occurred to see if the perpetrator was still there. Daedon may have been a master of luring these women with his seemingly innocent tactics. However, Daedon really sucked at the speedy getaway. Officer Geiger of Canby police found Dayton's car stuck in mud close to the scene and immediately asked for Dayton to come with him. Cindy went nearby, peered in the car, and exclaimed that Dayton was in fact the person who had committed sexual assault against her. At this time, Cindy was admitted to the Willamette Falls Hospital in Oregon City, and a standard rape kit procedure was conducted. She was interviewed by the Sheriff Detective Sergeant W. H. Burnham. It's not shocking that Dayton told Deputy Sweeney a completely different story about what happened. He claimed, allegedly, that he had met her for the first time at 9. 30 p. m. that night, not 1 a. m. After they had made out a while, Dayton was told by Cindy that she was supposed to meet another man near where Dayton picked Cindy up in her car. They drove to that place again, but the man never showed. They both thought at that point, because they didn't want the night to end, that they could just continue making out, but they wanted to be in a more secluded area. Dayton knew of the perfect spot in Canby, which was a local fishing spot that he frequented often, which is why they ended up in this area. Dayton claimed that every sexual act that night was consitual by both him and Cindy. Dayton elaborated that they had participated in consensual sex, but after the second time, Cindy had jokingly said she could turn him in for kidnapping and rape. But soon this threat became more and more serious by the minute, at which point Dayton's car got stuck in the mud, which is where Cindy eventually left the scene after trying to help Dayton get his car out of the mud. Detectives were able to get Dayden to sign a consent form to have his car searched and he signed off. He was fined to do so. Inside, they found pot, two 18 inch strands of electrical wire, and a rag. And following the search, Dayden was released. I don't know about you, but if you want to go search my car, I would not have any of those things. So I think detectives were pretty well on to Dayton at that point, especially with his background. Subsequently, on January 13th, 1976, Dayton was indicted by a Clackamas County grand jury for the charge of first degree rape, but was able to remain free pending his trial in May of that year. Before I go off and give you my hot take on Dayden and the law and justice, I'm sure you are dying to know where Sherry was in all of this. Because remember at this point, he had been denying of any kind of tomfoolery, any type of thing going on on his spare time. And at this point, they had been married just shy of two years. Dayton is continuing to lie on all accounts. First, omitting the truth and not telling Sherry any of the incident that happened that night. But when the news broke out, And he was said he needed to attend the sentence for his may trial. Instead of owning up to it. He said that he was falsely accused of any wrongdoing. And Sherry wanted so strongly to believe her husband. I promised you my hot take on the matter. Justice continues to fail. Justice is nowhere to be found. I have my hand up over my eyes by my eyebrows and I'm looking around. I'm like, um, justice, are, are you there? Anybody see the issues going on here and how, when you let Dayton out and when you let him free, even for a few months, he does the same shit again. Is it just me? Is anyone, is anyone out there? That is how I feel because he's not someone that's going to be quiet for a few months and wait for his trial. He's going to be someone that strikes again. And that is exactly what he does. He was free to walk the streets for the next four months because this happened in January. His court date was not until May. And it didn't take long before he attacked another woman. On Friday, February 20th, 1976, barely a month since he was indicted for the Cindy Jones sexual assault, he saw Anna Bouchanan walking on the highway headed towards Salem. Anna had just visited her boyfriend and was headed to the Greyhound bus station in Salem. Anna had a few buses to get on before making her way to her final destination, which was just around an hour left to her home. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a yellow Mustang. And inside that vehicle was a man. I'm thinking at this point, Dayton had changed out his cars to avoid any skepticism on him being out on the prowl again, but Dayton not being the brightest bulb in the tanning bed, he decides to pick the color of yellow for his car, which I think is funny because. Out of anything you could pick, wouldn't you want it to be darker, not as flashy, but again, it's, it's Dayden. So he chooses this car, he drives up to her and since it was rainy, Anna had been on her feet for a while. She had been walking and she didn't intend to hitchhike, but she was tired, was a long ways to go. When she saw Dayden and he asked her if she wanted a ride. Anna was eager to take it. Just like the other women, Dayden brought up the same offering of smoking some pot and drinking some beer. Anna was hesitant on the offerings, as she did have a bus to catch in just about two hours. But Dayden said that they could be done before then, and she obliged. They set off for Silver Falls State Park, just a short drive from Salem, but through a twisty, windy forest. They had parked, drank a few beers, smoked a little weed, and after an hour or so of hanging out, Anna told Dayton she did need to return to the bus station. Dayton reached for the glove box and immediately took out a knife. He showed it to Anna and said, if she did what he said, he would not hurt her. He hogtied her legs and feet and began to sexually assault her. Anna remembers that after the violent sexual assault, he began edging towards her feet, mumbling under his breath other women's names. Then, he listed off his family members, explaining to Anna that this act was the most sexually arousing for him. This is gross. Listing off his family members while he's doing this kind of act, sexual act to someone. While this was going on, a red pickup truck came roaring up to the parking area in which they were parked. Dayden threw into a panic state, wondering if anyone had seen him. He immediately untied Anna and yelled at her that at this point, There was no other way he had to kill her without her even being able to figure out what was happening, what was going on, he started driving her towards Malola forest, thinking out loud, talking out loud on whether he was going to Kidnap her for ransom or kill her. Anna screamed back that if he let her go, she wouldn't tell anyone. Anna explained that if she was dropped off at her grandma's place in Oregon City, that she would be able to sneak in and change. Dayton demanded that she get on her knees. He needed to tie her up again, and he could drop her off this way at her grandma's house. I'm unsure why he thought that, instead of killing her, he wanted to drop her off and why that split decision changed. However, as fleeting as the thought came in, it quickly left his mind again. And he went back to his initial idea that Anna could not be trusted and that he would need to kill her. Having tossed out the wire at Silver Falls, he ripped up Anna's blouse and used it as a linguature to strangle Anna. Anna would not go down without a fight. She fought violently. So violently that she was able to get one hand free. She grabbed a shoe that was right beside her. And with all of her force hit Dayton on the side of the head. Dayton turned from feeling in control to threatened by Anna. And Anna was able to get all of her bindings off and come back to the conversation of dropping her off at her grandma's place. Before much contemplation, two more cars drove by, which prompted Dayton to begin driving towards Oregon city, where Anna's grandma lived. Thank goodness Anna did not stick to her promise, because around 8 p. m. that same night, Anna, at her grandma's place, called in to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department to report the crime. While Anna was meeting with Sergeant W. H. Burnham, Dayton was escalated more than ever before. We see this a lot in criminals and serial killers. That the more things escalate, the more their duration in between their crimes escalates. Not even four days later, after Anna's attack, he attacked two high school girls. Anna is interviewing with the detective, and while this is occurring, Linda Morris and Janine Fowle come into the police station to report an attack that had happened to them. It didn't take long for detectives to put two and two together and see that all of these attacks were similar and could be by the hands of Dayton Leroy Rogers. Janine explained. That she received a call from her friend, Linda, asking if she could have a ride to school after missing the bus. At this point, Janine's car wouldn't start, she told Linda that she'd be over to her place soon and they could walk to school together. While they were walking, they spotted a yellow Mustang that pulled up beside them, offering them a ride. The girls said they were headed to McNary High School, but after getting into the car, Dayton said he was hungry, and would like to take them to lunch. The girls said yes, they could, you know, take a little bit more time before going into school. They had lunch with Dayden and Dayden asked if the girls liked to fish. Janine explained that they really just needed to get back to school. Dayden said he would get them back, but he wanted to go to Cascade Park first to watch people fish. After arriving there and watching for a while, Dayden went to a nearby gas station to grab beer for everyone. During this whole time, Janine explained that she needed to get back to school. But Dayden said that school would be out at this point, and offered another activity to do with the girls. The Wheatland Fairy. Janine said that besides Dayden prolonging getting them back, They really didn't feel there was anything to be afraid about at that time. That changed drastically. When Janine asked to go home, yet again, but this time, Daden put down his bottle of beer and said, quote, Do as I say and you won't get hurt. Just like the other attacks, the knife emerged from the glove box. Both girls were tied up and sexually assaulted after these assaults happen. He let both girls change and following the girls ran from the truck, grabbing the license plate number and taking off towards Janine's father's home. The description they gave of Dayton was a white male adult, 5'9 early 20s, about 160 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, a funny shaped nose, and light brown mustache. The name given to them when they met him was Steve Davis. He stated that he lived in Salem but his parents lived in Mexico and he was a salesman. With all the similarities, detectives knew with full certainty that Dayton was behind all the crimes. As the crimes might have varied slightly, but all had the same foundation at the core. Later that afternoon, Dayton was arrested at his home. Dayton was indicted on a charge for first degree sexual assault of Anna Bouchanin for first degree sexual assault and coercion on Janine Afal and Linda Morris. For these charges, he pleaded not guilty on reason of mental disease. On May 1976, the court date for Anna Buchanan, he was acquitted of the alleged sexual assault, and later was acquitted for the alleged sexual assault of Janine and Linda on August 27th, 1976. He was convicted of the coercion charge. And that was really the only charge that he was convicted of. So, this is yet another telling situation where all of these charges are going out of the window. Where we're all scratching our heads as to why he's not getting convicted of anything. And the only thing that I can come up with, and later you'll hear other people's perspectives on it, but it all comes back to me for it's 1976. Okay. And at this point, actually we're in 2024 and we still have trouble with our justice system taking these things seriously. I can only imagine that 1976. Is exceedingly worse than that, and that a lot of people just didn't believe these young girls. He did receive five years prison sentence for violating his probation for the attack of Denise Raymond. Cause remember, he's also on probation still for the attack when he's doing all of. These other criminal acts on these other women although there is damning evidence and the fences spoke to the same kind of attacks Yamhill County District Attorney John L Collins spoke to the acquittals Quote when juries often felt that if the women or girl contributed to the rape in any way They would not convict him in this case I think it was because they drank beer and smoked weed with him Collins spoke to the parole board. Urging that Dayton not to be released, citing how dangerous he was when Collins spoke to the contact with criminal defendants, he wrote, quote, I have not dealt with another person. I consider more dangerous than Dayton Rogers. If I could pick only a half dozen of the most dangerous people I've been involved with. He would be on that list. Darryl L. Larson, the Lane County Deputy District Attorney, wrote in an after sentencing report, this man is an extreme danger to the community, particularly young women. He is both sexually and physically violent and without a question, he is a murder looking for a place to happen. Despite these statements and pleads to keep Dayton behind bars and two five year sentences, Dayton was paroled from Oregon State Correctional Institution in January of 1982. And a year later, his parole was terminated and he was free. And it doesn't end here, but. I'm gonna leave y'all here today so that I can personally go get some ice for my head and some ibuprofen because I have a major headache over the amount of times I've had to say that Dayton has not received punishment and has not been allowed to get the punishment he deserves and rather he just is free to roam the streets and cause havoc. So I'll probably just go and watch some cat videos to numb my mind and. I for real want to thank you so much for listening today and being along for this ride, there's so much more to come and I really appreciate you tuning in, And I hope that everyone has a happy week ahead. And I will be sharing another episode with you very soon. Take care. Bye. Um, uh, Um, Uh, transcript..