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NARRATOR: On the 31st of August, 1987, in an area known as the Molalla Forest near Portland, Oregon,
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a hunter scouting out a good vantage point made a horrific discovery. ANDREJS EGLITIS: The ferns are brown and obviously dead.
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He takes a foot and sweeps the dead ferns apart, and there's a dead body. NARRATOR: But this was the first of many.
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JIM STROVINK: One, then two, and three, four, five, six, and seven. What really was significant with the discovery
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of the severed feet. Many of the deceased had their feet totally cut off. NARRATOR: All seven victims had been hogtied
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and most were mutilated. Their killer was a 33-year-old mechanic named Dayton Leroy Rogers.
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ELIZABETH YARDLEY: After he raped and murdered women, he was able to just switch back into that normal respectable
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average Joe family life. And the reason that he's able to do this is because he feels no remorse.
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NARRATOR: Rogers was already in custody. Witnesses had seen him brutally stab a woman to death in a parking lot just three weeks earlier.
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SCOTT HEALY: He did this to these women while they were still alive. And they were screaming, and pleading,
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and responding to the pain that he was inflicting upon them. NARRATOR: Dayton Leroy Rogers dubbed the Molalla Forest
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Killer had carved his name out as one of the world's most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]
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On the 7th of August 1987 when Dayton Leroy Rogers was arrested for the brutal murder of Jennifer
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Smith in the parking lot of a family restaurant, it seemed police were dealing with an open and shut case.
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Little did they know that Jennifer was the last of many women whom this depraved killer had
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slaughtered. The discovery just weeks later of a further 7 victims in the Molalla Forest meant that the true horror
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of what this man was capable of would be revealed once and for all. Scott Healy is one of the prosecutors
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who's worked on the case. SCOTT HEALY: Dayton Leroy Rogers, over the course of about 2 and 1/2 months, killed at least eight women
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that we're aware of. NARRATOR: Having examined all of the evidence, Scott was able to build up a clear picture of the man
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they were dealing with. SCOTT HEALY: Dayton Leroy Rogers is a perfect example of a classic sociopath.
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They basically are only concerned about themselves, their own needs, their own desires.
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They want what they want when they want it and they don't care what it takes to get what they want.
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And he ultimately escalates to killing multiple, multiple women after brutally and horrifically torturing them, you know, sometimes for hours.
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NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in Moscow, Idaho Dayton Leroy Rogers was born
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on the 30th of September 1953, one of seven children to parents Ortis and Jasperelle.
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ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Rogers' father had some very fixed views on women and sex. He thought that women who had sex before they were married
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were whores, essentially. And you get this kind of dichotomy emerging between the Madonna figure here with your mother,
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who is virtuous, who cares for you and nurtures you. And then on the other hand, you have
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this whore figure, which all other women are placed into. So it's very black and white.
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There's no gray area. You are either an acceptable woman or you're not. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Dayton's father was abusive.
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He was randomly violent to his children. It was all I was doing this for your own good.
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The trouble was it bred in Dayton Rogers, a rebellious attitude. NARRATOR: Rogers' first encounter with the law
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was for shooting at cars with a BB gun whilst he was in junior high school. He was beginning to push the boundaries.
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But as he reached adolescence, his thoughts turned to the opposite sex. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He's grown up in a very conservative, very
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religious family, where the women in the family, his sisters, they probably would have covered
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up in terms of their dress. So their feet would have been one the parts of the body,
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which he would have seen. He becomes fixated on this. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He would watch his sisters undress.
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He would obsess over their feet, and naturally enough, probably masturbate over them.
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NARRATOR: By 1972, 18-year-old Rogers was working as a painter and had recently married a girl two years his junior.
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But it wasn't long before he was looking outside of his relationship to satisfy his sexual urges.
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SCOTT HEALY: He's just driving around Eugene, Oregon area. And he comes upon the young 15-year-old girl
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and picks her up. She's hitchhiking at the time. They ultimately end up having sex in a field.
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NARRATOR: Rogers drop the girl home, but not before asking if he could see her again the following day.
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SCOTT HEALY: They're back in that same field in that same area. They've just gotten done having sex again.
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Outside, the weather's nice. And they're kind of just looking up the sky kind of talking.
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And that's when he, for no apparent reason, just plunges a knife into her belly.
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And she literally just comes up with the knife and she's grabs hold of it. And she looks at him.
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And she says that she kind of sees these cold black eyes and this kind of 1,000 yard stare.
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And she realizes that at that moment in time, even as a 15-year-old, that the next words
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that she speaks or utters could decide whether or not she lives or dies. NARRATOR: Rogers told the girl he'd stabbed her
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because she didn't love him. SCOTT HEALY: Just looking right into his eyes because she's trying to save her own life.
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And she says, no, I do love you. Why do you think I don't love you, Dayton? And he says, well, because you have a boyfriend.
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And I mean, she literally had just met him the day before. She's able to convince him to carry her to the car
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and ultimately convinces him to take her to a hospital. NARRATOR: Rogers was convicted of the violent assault.
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But instead of being sent to prison, he was placed on probation for four years. It left him free to further explore his sexual fantasies.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's as if he's emerging from some kind of chrysalis. He's becoming something.
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Only the trouble is that that something is utterly terrifying. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Roger starts developing
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fantasies about hurting women, about raping women. This is the stuff that gets him sexually aroused.
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And this is very much built on that value system that he's learned from his father.
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Men is superior. Women inferior. Men have a right to do whatever they want to women.
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NARRATOR: In 1976 while still on probation for the knife attack, 22-year-old Dayton Leroy Rogers decided
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to act out his dark fantasies. He spotted two school girls. SCOTT HEALY: 15 and 16-year-old, they're walking in the rain.
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They're skipping school. He pulls up in his vehicle and entices them to get in. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He encourages them to drink alcohol.
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He encourages them to smoke marijuana. And this is really interesting for me because he wants them to be blamed for the violence
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that he reflects on them. He wants people looking at this in the aftermath to go, wow,
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they kind of were asking for it. SCOTT HEALY: He parks the vehicle. It's raining pretty good outside.
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And ultimately, the vehicle gets stuck in the mud there and that becomes important later on.
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But they're kind of talking, drinking. He seemed really nice and really friendly.
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And then they talked about how all of a sudden his demeanor changed. He kind of snapped.
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He reaches into the glove box and grabs a knife. NARRATOR: Holding them at knife-point,
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Rogers hogtied the girls. SCOTT HEALY: Rogers is a sadomasochist. And so what sexually arouses him actually
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is the violence, not necessarily the sexual touching. He has sex with one of them in front of the other.
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And he's threatening them with a knife. Of course, they're extremely scared. But ultimately, he realizes he's stuck in the mud
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and he cuts them loose to help push the vehicle, actually, out of the mud. And of course, they once are free and outside that vehicle,
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they take off running. NARRATOR: Dayton Leroy Rogers was cleared of rape, but convicted of coercion.
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He'd also broken his parole. This time, he was not going to escape jail. But just five years later, he was back out and re-offending.
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After a string of violent rapes, he was sent back to prison several times. However, on his release in 1982, he appeared determined
00:09:41
to turn his life around. SCOTT HEALY: Dayton Leroy Rogers seemed to be doing everything right.
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He had gotten remarried, had a child, was involved in the local Baptist church. NARRATOR: Rogers started a business
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with his father-in-law, repairing garden machinery. It was a trade he'd learned during one of his stretches
00:10:02
in prison. The new workshop was very successful. SCOTT HEALY: He seemingly was doing the things
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that were supposed to be doing. But you always have an exit interview at the end of your parole.
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And as soon as you're done with that interview, you walk out the door. When you're off parole, you're done.
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And so the parole officer says, so, Dayton, knowing everything that you know now, is there anything
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that you've done in your past that you would do differently? And he sort of just sits there and just basically stares
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straight into her eyes and says, yeah, there's something I'd do differently in the future.
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Because next time, I'm not going to leave a witness. And she said, oh, my gosh. And there's nothing I can do at this point
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because he's been released from parole. NARRATOR: In the past, Dayton Leroy Rogers
00:10:59
had let his victims get away. It was a mistake he wasn't going to make again. At 3:00 AM on the 7th of August 1987,
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customers at Denny's restaurants in Portland, Oregon were alerted to a commotion going on outside.
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Desperate screams and cries of rape had been heard coming from the parking lot of the all-night diner.
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local Portlander Charles Gates had stopped for a hot chocolate on his way home after a night out.
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CHARLES GATES: Two guys came in. Hey, there's something going on outside. And everybody's rushing out, you know, this is--
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well, yeah. I'm curious. I didn't even take time to find the ramp. Pulled a wheelie in the chair and jumped the curb.
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And first I saw were the backs of people, the backs of their heads. And then I look down and I saw her--
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she wasn't wearing any clothes. She didn't respond. She didn't move. What was going through my mind was I have to do something.
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NARRATOR: The victim was 25-year-old mother of two, Jennifer Smith. It was immediately obvious that she'd
00:12:18
been attacked with a knife. Having recently trained in first aid, Charles wanted to help.
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CHARLES GATES: Her heart wasn't functioning. And she had a deep gash on her throat.
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Me and another person began performing two-person CPR. I was giving breaths. The other person was giving a heart massage.
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And we're trying to stop as much of the bleeding as possible because there was blood everywhere.
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NARRATOR: Amongst the commotion, hardly anybody noticed a man getting into his truck.
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CHARLES GATES: I was absolutely focused on saving her until I saw a truck speed out of the parking lot
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just missed us by feet. I made that assumption that that was probably him. And then I saw a second car speeding after him.
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NARRATOR: One sharp eyed witness had spotted the man and had the foresight to follow the speeding truck.
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Just a few minutes later, the paramedics arrived and took over Jennifer's care. CHARLES GATES: My only thought going through my mind at that
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time was did she make it? Did she make it? That was the only thing I really cared about.
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NARRATOR: As Jennifer was being taken to hospital by ambulance, Detective Jim Strovink was woken by the phone ringing.
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JIM STROVINK: At that time, we had a female that was a rape victim, stabbing. Upon arrival at the crime scene, it was rather hectic
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as you could imagine. We had a lot of medical personnel, materials that were on the pavement.
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We had blood. We had the items of evidence. NARRATOR: The attacker had left in such a hurry,
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there were items of evidence strewn across the parking lot. JIM STROVINK: A forensic investigator,
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he ended up locating the knife. He looked under bush and he was able to find that knife that had been discarded at the crime scene.
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Some of the more prominent pieces of evidence that were discovered were the shoelaces, one tennis
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shoe that was there, only one. NARRATOR: The meticulous search of the crime scene
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also revealed discarded miniature bottles of vodka and orange juice, which would later prove significant.
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JIM STROVINK: We had a number of witnesses that needed to be interviewed immediately, and that
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was one of my responsibilities. NARRATOR: The witnesses had vital information. But perhaps, the most crucial witness of all
00:14:52
was the gentleman who'd followed in hot pursuit of the speeding truck. JIM STROVINK: He just about ran out of gasoline
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in the pursuit of that suspect vehicle, but he was able to get to Oregon City. We're so fortunate because the light on the license plate
00:15:07
wasn't operating. So he had to get up real close and he was able to read the rear license plate.
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NARRATOR: This single piece of information was a huge lead for Jim and the team.
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There was a possibility it could take them straight to the door of Jennifer's attacker.
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JIM STROVINK: We obtained the name of the registered owner, which was Dayton Leroy Rogers, who
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resided in South Clackamas County, North Marion County area. We sent two uniforms to that residence.
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NARRATOR: The truck was nowhere to be seen. When officers knocked on the door, it was answered by Rogers' wife, Sherrie.
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JIM STROVINK: Sherrie revealed that Dayton Rogers was still working or reported to be working in his shop in Hubbard.
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NARRATOR: Investigators immediately made their way over to Rogers' workshop. Deputy District Attorney Andrejs Eglitis received a call.
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ANDREJS EGLITIS: I got into a car with my investigator and we went to the shop in Hubbard.
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Before we got there, Detective Turner had been there. And knowing that this may be the guy that we're looking for,
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he held his hand over the hood of this little pickup truck. And it was very, very warm.
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This truck had been recently run pretty hard. And then as he approaches the shop,
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he notices on the doorstep a couple of drops of blood. He looks in the window and there's Dayton Leroy
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Rogers with a hacksaw, apparently trying to slice a bolt in half. And his hand was bandaged.
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NARRATOR: The detectives asked Rogers about his movements that night. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Well, I've been here all night.
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Well, your truck is warm. Oh, and I went out to get a cup of coffee. Well, there's your coffee machine
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and it's percolating right now. How about your hand? Oh, I cut myself while I was cutting this bolt.
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And that was about it. That was about it. Now, we're pretty sure this is the guy.
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And Detective John Turner says you're under arrest. And I saw that happen. I saw the handcuffs go on him.
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And for some reason, at that point in time, it occurred to me. This is not your ordinary case.
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This is something different. NARRATOR: Despite the extensive efforts from the witnesses
00:17:39
and medical team, shortly after arriving at the Emmanuel hospital in North Portland,
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25-year-old Jennifer Smith was pronounced dead. If the detectives initial investigations proved correct,
00:17:53
she'd been murdered by Dayton Leroy Rogers. GEOFFREY WANSELL: On the surface, Rogers is ordinary, living an ordinary life, wife, son.
00:18:05
And yet, under the surface, something far darker is going on. He would go home, have supper with Sherrie and their son,
00:18:17
and then he would go out again. ANDREJS EGLITIS: His wife thought that he had so much business that he would spend all night
00:18:25
working in the shop, and then arrive home exhausted, fall asleep, and then go back to the shop at night to work.
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What she didn't know, of course, was what he was doing those nights. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He would go out in his truck
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and he would troll the red-light district of Portland. ANDREJS EGLITIS: He was fairly well
00:18:46
known among the prostitutes in the area who called him Gambler Steve. He presented this persona of being a well-to-do gambler,
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driving a crappy little pickup truck. And they would get in the car with him. NARRATOR: In a desperate attempt to support her family,
00:19:06
Jennifer Smith had turned to prostitution. She was unfortunate to encounter Dayton Leroy
00:19:12
Rogers on the 7th of August. ANDREJS EGLITIS: There was another prostitute that actually saw her getting into his truck.
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He took this little pickup truck and drove it to the West of the Denny's into a very poorly lit parking
00:19:27
lot of a small office building. And then he proceeded to cut on her, having tied her up with a pair of shoelaces.
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And he would be cutting her and cutting her. Ultimately, she managed to get out of the truck,
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out of the bondage, barefoot and naked, and run through the parking lot away from his truck.
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NARRATOR: Desperately trying to get away from Rogers, Jennifer screamed as loud as she could.
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Her cries of rape were heard and a number of people responded to see if they could help.
00:20:04
Tragically, Rogers got to her before they could. JIM STROVINK: One of the subjects actually
00:20:10
witnessed the event unfolding as she had escaped from the vehicle. She was trying to elude Dayton Rogers in the parking lot,
00:20:18
and ultimately, landed on top of her, where two other witnesses then responded to her screams.
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ANDREJS EGLITIS: He ran around the back of the office building, got into his pickup truck,
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and zoomed out of that parking lot, in fact, running over the sidewalk to get out
00:20:38
of the parking lot. NARRATOR: 33-year-old Dayton Leroy Rogers was indicted for aggravated murder
00:20:46
during the course of rape, kidnapping, and torture. Now, investigators needed to gather
00:20:51
all of the evidence that would prove Roger's guilt at trial. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Shortly after he was in custody,
00:20:59
his father-in-law got a call from the Clackamas County Jail. And Dayton asked his father-in-law, who happened
00:21:08
to be in the shop at that time, and he says, Dad, did they look in the wood stove?
00:21:16
And Dad says, I don't know. Why do you ask? Well, he didn't answer that question.
00:21:22
NARRATOR: The detectives had noted the stove was lit the night they arrested Rogers.
00:21:27
ANDREJS EGLITIS: So what Dayton's father-in-law did, he took what we call a cow magnet that's a pill shaped
00:21:34
magnet, about four inches long. The wood stove is still warm. He opens up the door to the wood stove
00:21:41
and with this cow magnet, starts moving it around in the ashes. And lo and behold, what does he find in metal
00:21:48
sticking to this magnet? He finds bra clasps, enough for about 15 bras. He finds metallic parts that ultimately prove
00:22:02
to be parts of that shoe, the partner of the shoe that was found at the parking lot.
00:22:09
And he very nicely bags all of this stuff up in a brown paper bag and provides it to the police as evidence.
00:22:19
And we take it from there. NARRATOR: With Rogers safely behind bars, investigators could rest easy in the knowledge
00:22:27
that Jennifer's callous killer was already in custody. Now, they had the time they needed
00:22:34
to meticulously prepare their case against him for trial. Little did they know that just three weeks later, 30 miles
00:22:43
outside of the city in an area known as the Molalla Forest, a gruesome discovery was about to be made.
00:22:52
ANDREJS EGLITIS: There's a hunter, who at the opening of deer season, wants a scout in area where he wants
00:22:59
to be on opening morning for the best chance to get a deer. And he starts to look around it and notices
00:23:07
there's this patch of ferns. All the other ferns surrounding this patch are bright green fern colored.
00:23:15
This patch, the ferns are brown, and obviously dead. So he's enough of an outdoors man, where he takes a foot
00:23:23
and sweeps the dead ferns apart. And there's a dead body. NARRATOR: The hunter immediately reported
00:23:31
his discovery to the police. Detective Jim Strovink was sent to the crime scene early the next morning.
00:23:39
JIM STROVINK: We started our investigation, and as a result, moving the debris that was there covering the body,
00:23:45
a second body was discovered. As I recall, we broke from lunch. And I was walking around and just in general vicinity
00:23:56
walked around some shrubs. And I found a third deceased victim, body number three.
00:24:05
And as a result, that's where we really became concerned, recognized that we had a serial murderer on our hands.
00:24:13
NARRATOR: The first victim was missing a foot and the second had both feet removed.
00:24:18
It appeared they'd been sawn off just above the ankle. All three were naked. JIM STROVINK: As the investigation intensified,
00:24:28
we realized that we had to make it more or less an archaeological site. We graded off the area in 25-by-25-foot squares.
00:24:36
Each was identified by a letter. And then we conducted a shoulder to shoulder search of that area
00:24:43
and collected every piece of evidence. If it didn't grow, you pick it up and we log in as evidence.
00:24:50
And we did find miniature bottles of vodka and other items that were key to the investigation restraints
00:25:00
and things of that nature. And body number four was discovered just Northwest of that initial location
00:25:09
that we were investigating. And then an additional body was soon discovered. NARRATOR: The day had started with a single body.
00:25:19
But by sunset, it was apparent this was the work of a sadistic serial killer. Five victims had been found in various states of decay.
00:25:29
JIM STROVINK: What really was significant was the discovery of the severed feet that were found.
00:25:34
Many of the deceased had their feet totally cut off. NARRATOR: Once again, Deputy DA Andrejs Eglitis paid
00:25:44
a visit to the crime scene. ANDREJS EGLITIS: The smell was horrible because these bodies
00:25:50
in a state of putrefaction. And when the body was removed, that odor just rose up
00:25:57
and filled the air. A couple of days into the investigation, two of the detectives, Turner and Machado,
00:26:06
they are now sick of the smell. So they say Mike, let's go have a cigarette. They walk almost a quarter mile up a dirt road.
00:26:15
And Turner is about to light a cigarette. [SNIFFS] You smell that, Mike? And they were 20 feet from yet another body.
00:26:24
JIM STROVINK: The whole forest was a potential crime scene. So we had a great deal of area to cover
00:26:29
acres and acres and acres. Everybody that was available had to respond. We had Explorer Scouts, reserve deputies,
00:26:38
anybody that was breathing. We've got them out there to help us search. NARRATOR: With the body count mounting,
00:26:45
investigators needed to know who these poor women were. And that wasn't going to be easy.
00:26:52
ANDREJS EGLITIS: We have to identify, beyond a reasonable doubt, who these people are.
00:26:57
And the faces are essentially nonexistent. Body parts are missing. Feet are missing.
00:27:07
NARRATOR: Was the forest was razed to the ground in the search for victims and evidence
00:27:12
on the 7th of September, a week after the hunter's gruesome discovery the first of the bodies
00:27:18
was positively identified as that of a local sex worker. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Lisa Marie Mock was a married woman,
00:27:26
both her and her husband had experienced some substance misuse issues. So their lifestyle was quite a transient one.
00:27:34
But there were periods where she really wanted to get her life back on track. Her father has spoken about a particular time when
00:27:41
she had a job as a secretary. She had her own apartment. She had her own car. She was nearly there.
00:27:47
NARRATOR: 23-year-old Lisa was about to inherit a large sum of money, which could have been life changing.
00:27:55
The second body to be discovered, she was initially identified by her distinctive tattoos,
00:28:01
later confirmed by dental records. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He'd removed both of her feet.
00:28:07
So she, for him, is simply an object to dismember, to humiliate, to dehumanize. This is the part of her body that I think
00:28:16
has the highest value for him. Whilst there seemed to be a clear MO in the way the victims had been restrained, killed,
00:28:26
and their feet amputated, one had been subjected to something quite different. ANDREJS EGLITIS: The freshest of the bodies
00:28:34
with the least putrefaction was a woman named Noni Cervantes. And she was unique in that her feet weren't cut off,
00:28:41
but she had been opened up from the pubis bone to her breast bone. And her internals had been thrown about.
00:28:51
NARRATOR: Nondace Cervantes, or Noni, was 26 years old. Her body had been eviscerated.
00:28:59
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: This was really brutal. This was quite distinct from what he'd done to the other victims.
00:29:04
So this suggests to me that he held this particular victim with quite a degree of contempt.
00:29:10
There was something about this murder that distinguishes it from the others. And I think it is perhaps the fact that this young woman,
00:29:19
perhaps put up a fight, perhaps stepped outside of that role of subservient femininity.
00:29:25
And that made him incredibly angry. NARRATOR: The Molalla Forest investigation was on a scale
00:29:31
never before seen in Oregon. The meticulous search of the vast crime scene took nine days
00:29:38
and involved 200 individuals. By the end, seven female victims had been recovered and almost
00:29:45
500 items of evidence. Some of these seem familiar. JIM STROVINK: It was readily apparent that, hey, we
00:29:54
got items of evidence here, a lot of similarity between what was at Jennifer Lisa Smith's crime scene
00:30:00
and what we had at the Molalla Forest crime scene too. ANDREJS EGLITIS: The bodies in the forest
00:30:07
were littered with miniature Smirnoff vodka bottles. We also found a miniature orange juice bottle and Regent
00:30:16
Sheffield knife, identical in make and model to the one found behind the small office building.
00:30:24
The knife that killed Jenny Smith. JIM STROVINK: You can't eliminate anybody. We went forward with thousands of leads and information
00:30:31
that came forward. But it poured in and it all pointed to Dayton Rogers. NARRATOR: Yet, again, 33-year-old Rogers
00:30:40
was the prime suspect. Jennifer Smith and the seven victims found in the Molalla
00:30:45
Forest meant that he was responsible for snuffing out at least eight lives. Of the seven bodies discovered in the forest,
00:30:54
six were identified. Just like Jennifer, they were all young sex workers. Deputy DA Andrejs Eglitis was tasked with working
00:31:05
across both investigations. ANDREJS EGLITIS: When the bodies were discovered in Molalla,
00:31:12
the Sheriff's office phone would ring off the hook with women who said, I'm a prostitute.
00:31:20
I was with a guy. And he took me to Molalla. NARRATOR: Sex workers who had previously
00:31:25
been too scared to speak up suddenly felt able to. These women identified that man as Dayton Leroy Rogers.
00:31:34
But their stories didn't stop there. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Detectives went out and talked to these women.
00:31:40
And there were about 30 who had been with Rogers. It was remarkably consistent among all of the women
00:31:48
that the object of his erotic fantasies are women's feet. And in particular, he would comment on their high arches.
00:31:58
He really loved that. He would rub their feet and masturbate, and that would be it.
00:32:06
And obviously, that's an easy 50 bucks for a girl on the street. JIM STROVINK: He would always purchase miniature bottles,
00:32:14
buy them by the case. The ones that you find on an airline, the tenth bottles, Smirnoff vodka.
00:32:19
And then he buy the one-serving plastic jug of orange juice. And he'd drink some of that.
00:32:26
And then he pour the vodka in. And he drink that while he's driving, and offer that to his date.
00:32:32
NARRATOR: Rogers who would pick up the same girls on multiple occasions. After gaining that confidence, he
00:32:38
began to push the boundaries. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Later on, he started asking them to remove their clothing.
00:32:44
And so it got a little more intense. And after a while, he got to where how about
00:32:50
I tie you up while I do this? OK. And that ultimately led to the stabbing, and the poking
00:32:57
with the knife, and the cutting. NARRATOR: By reaching out to the community the victims had come
00:33:03
from, investigators were starting to piece together the true picture of what these women had
00:33:08
experienced at the hands of Dayton Leroy Rogers. But it seemed that he'd let some women live after speaking
00:33:17
with Andrejs, one of the surviving victims, Carol, asked him a very specific question.
00:33:25
ANDREJS EGLITIS: As we're about to leave, she suddenly asks us, did any of the victims have their feet cut off?
00:33:33
Now at that point, that little fact was rather closely guarded secret. There was no publicity about that.
00:33:40
My investigator says, Carol, why you ask? She says, well, he started cutting on my leg.
00:33:47
With what? Hacksaw. Really? Where? And she shows on her leg, just above the ankle,
00:33:56
a healed wound with somewhat ragged edge that eventually medical examiner says that's consistent with a hacksaw cut.
00:34:05
So that left us to wonder to this day were those victims alive when he sawed off their legs?
00:34:14
There's evidence from Carol [INAUDIBLE] that maybe they were. NARRATOR: This firsthand account shed
00:34:20
a whole new light on the depraved acts of this sadistic killer. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Not only were these women murdered,
00:34:28
they were tortured. And why? Because this guy thought that was a sexual thrill. NARRATOR: But one question remained, why
00:34:38
did Rogers let some women live? Another survivor, Susan, had a story that perhaps
00:34:45
can tell you the answer. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Susan, she had been with him somewhere
00:34:49
between 20 and 30 times. And she was his favorite. Until one time, she's out in Molalla
00:35:00
and he starts cutting on her feet with a knife. She's tied up, cutting out her feet.
00:35:07
And like, why didn't you scream? Why didn't you fight? Because I'm in this wilderness.
00:35:13
No one's going to hear me scream. Let's get it over with. Just kill me. And that's what Susan told him.
00:35:19
And he's-- he like the others, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. And he took her back to Portland.
00:35:26
She got out of the car walking with blood sloshing in her shoes. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He was able to experience
00:35:33
those feelings of control with the women who got away. With the women who were murdered,
00:35:39
he felt the need to kill them to actually maintain that control. And that wouldn't have been because
00:35:44
of anything that they did, but this is due to his choice. This is his decision. And it's really a roll of the dice.
00:35:53
NARRATOR: In February 1988, Dayton Leroy Rogers went on trial for the murder of Jennifer Smith.
00:36:00
Andrejs Eglitis was the lead prosecutor. ANDREJS EGLITIS: Dayton took the stand.
00:36:06
He describes how, yes, he was a bad husband and a bad dad. And yes, he would go downtown Portland
00:36:17
and he'd try to find prostitutes. And the bottom line is saying, hey, I am an awful guy.
00:36:22
I'm an awful guy, but I don't deserve the death penalty just for fooling around on my wife
00:36:26
with prostitutes. NARRATOR: 34-year-old Rogers admitted picking up Jennifer Smith and taking her to the parking lot
00:36:34
where he tied her up. However, he had a very different version of events for what happened after that.
00:36:42
ANDREJS EGLITIS: Here's the story. All of a sudden, she reaches into the glove box
00:36:47
and pulls out a little kitchen knife that his wife had put in there so he could more readily cut
00:36:54
his sandwich that he was going to have for lunch that she had prepared. So she takes his knife.
00:36:59
Now mind you, this woman is buck naked and she holds that knife to his throat and demands all of his money.
00:37:07
She's got the knife and he manages to get a little bit of the handle that is protruding
00:37:13
from the bottom of her hand and managed to pull that knife right out of her hand.
00:37:18
Thereby, causing the cuts on her hand. So that's his defense. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: What this is actually doing
00:37:26
is trying to tarnish the image of this victim. He knows that she's a sex worker.
00:37:31
He knows that's not going to go down well with the jury at this particular time.
00:37:36
But he feels that he's got to do something else, I think, to victim blame essentially.
00:37:41
So if he can present her as a thief as well as a sex worker, then he's hoping that that's going to garner
00:37:47
some sympathy for him. NARRATOR: It didn't work. The evidence against him was so strong.
00:37:53
And together with the injuries he subjected Jennifer to, prove what a callous killer he really was.
00:38:00
Dayton Leroy Rogers was found guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
00:38:08
Charles Gates who tried in vain to save Jennifer's life on that fateful August night will
00:38:14
never forget the woman whose life Rogers cruelly snuffed out. CHARLES GATES: I haven't forgotten.
00:38:21
And I will never forget. I had to do something, even if she didn't survive. To this day, I still hear sounds of--
00:38:33
of her exhaling when I'm trying to breathe into her. I could still hear that. And it's been over 30 years.
00:38:41
I'll never forget it. NARRATOR: On the 30th of March 1989, the trial for the Molalla Forest victims began.
00:38:52
ANDREJS EGLITIS: There are six murders I have to prove. We didn't go on the seventh one because we
00:38:56
don't know who she is. So I have six murders to prove. I understand the jury took six hours to determine
00:39:05
that he was the killer. NARRATOR: Dayton Leroy Rogers was sentenced to death. But since then, Rogers and his legal team
00:39:14
have fought for his sentence to be reduced to life without the possibility of parole.
00:39:19
They've managed to overturn his death sentence three times. Sr. Deputy DA Scott Healey prosecuted
00:39:28
Rogers at two of the retrials. SCOTT HEALY: Those convictions by that original jury in May of 1989 have never been overturned.
00:39:37
What has been overturned is the death sentence portion. So each time it's overturned, then of course, it
00:39:43
comes back for re-sentencing. NARRATOR: At the retrials, Rogers took the opportunity to make a statement to the jury
00:39:51
who would decide his fate. I am sorry so very sorry. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I don't think this
00:40:04
is a genuine expression of remorse, or guilt, or anything of that nature. I think this is an attempt to maintain control
00:40:12
of the narrative, and to try, and ensure the best outcome for himself. There was never a day that I don't
00:40:26
struggle within the very core of my heart and soul. SCOTT HEALY: He's, once again, only concerned
00:40:38
about one person and his needs. And he doesn't care what it takes for him to satisfy those needs.
00:40:46
And so, no. Nothing that he said to that jury was sincere. NARRATOR: At all three retrials, the new jury
00:40:54
has come to the same decision that the original one did, that Dayton Leroy Rogers should be put to death for his crimes.
00:41:03
SCOTT HEALY: Think about this, 48 jurors, 48 people from the community have heard the evidence
00:41:10
in this case now and all 48 of them said no, this person deserves to be sentenced to death for the conduct they engaged in.
00:41:21
NARRATOR: In 2013, modern forensic science techniques prevailed where their 1980s predecessors had failed.
00:41:31
26 years after Rogers brutally murdered her, the final Molalla Forest victim was finally identified
00:41:38
as 18-year-old Tawnia Johnston. But many of the investigating team believe there are more victims out there.
00:41:47
ANDREJS EGLITIS: Why do I think there are other victims? I do for a very good reason.
00:41:52
After the conviction in the Jenny Smith case, his lawyer came to the district attorney
00:41:59
and the offer was made. OK. We know the Molalla cases are coming up. If you choose not to proceed on the death penalty,
00:42:12
he'll tell you where the rest of the bodies are. NARRATOR: There was even evidence found that suggested
00:42:18
there could be more victims in the ashes of the wood stove at Rogers' workshop. SCOTT HEALY: If you start to do the math on all
00:42:27
of the metal that's there and the clothing that it was attached to, it adds up to a whole lot more than just eight people that were killed.
00:42:38
So that's why we know that there are more victims. CHARLES GATES: He was more evil than any of us
00:42:46
could possibly imagine. Once it came to light and all the cards were on the table,
00:42:52
we could see something that was just monstrous. ANDREJS EGLITIS: I don't know what all the serial killers
00:42:59
in this world have done. But I'll tell you, based on the cruelty that he's shown,
00:43:08
he's right up there in the most evil killers. NARRATOR: Only Rogers knows how many women he has killed
00:43:16
and it seems he may take that secret to his grave. His death sentence still stands.
00:43:22
And although whether he'll ever be executed remains to be seen, he will certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars.
00:43:30
He systematically groomed at least eight women until they were at their most vulnerable.
00:43:35
Once tied up and completely helpless, he tortured and mutilated them for no other reason
00:43:41
than to satisfy his sadistic sexual fantasies, making Dayton Leroy Rogers one of the world's
00:43:48
most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]