Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 2

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 2A Statesman Journal miPIWMMWIIMHH UNSOLVED LUNG 1982-2007 jl 1 111 Sherry Eyerly William Scott Smith Eyerly case timeline Go to StatesmanJournal.com for a longer version. APRIL 26, 1959: William Scott Smith is born in Portland. (Smith attends Silverton Union High School and drops out during his junior year.) AUGUST 1977: An 18-year-old Smith is convicted of swiping a $3 baseball cap and misdemeanor driving offenses. MAY 1979: Smith is charged with second-degree sexual abuse, but later is acquitted. JULY 4, 1982: 18-year-old Sherry Eyerly is kidnapped and killed.

Her body isn't recovered. FEB. 19, 1984: Rebecca Ann Darling is found in the Little Pudding River 10 miles east of Salem. Darling was last seen about 3 a.m. at a Circle store where she was working alone.

Smith told police he carried Darling from the Circle store. He said he took her to his home on Lardon Road NE, where he had been living with his father and stepmother, who were out of state at the time. Darling, 21, was raped and strangled with rope at the house, and Smith then dumped her body in the Little Pudding River. APRIL 7, 1984: Willamette University student Katherine lone Redmond is sexually assaulted and killed. Redmond's car was found near State Street and Cordon Road.

Her body was found April 11 in a nearby field. APRIL 25, 1984: Smith is indicted in connection to the slayings of Darling and Redmond. JULY 19, 1984: Smith is sentenced to two life terms. 1991: "Unsolved Mysteries" films an episode based about Eyerly's death. The episode aired at least a dozen times but did not generate any tips.

2004: Marion County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Squad, a four-member team of retired law enforcement volunteers, is formed. SEPTEMBER 2005: Eyerly's case is reopened. NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2006: Smith confesses to Marion County cold-case investigators. A search for Eyerly's body is renewed, but it never was recovered. DEC.

18, 2007: Smith pleads guilty in Marion County Circuit Court. Ruth Liao jj TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ I Statesman Journal Break Continued from 1A A memorial to Sherry Eyerly was placed where she was abducted. Her body was never found. Case's closure stirs up memories ggp -n new j- Janet Davies retired from the Statesman Journal in 2002.

She covered police and courts for 35 years. Wr .1: yH 1 JANET DAVIES I Special to the Statesman Journal Will Hingston, who retired as a captain in 1997, investigated the Sherry Eyerly case for the Marion County Sheriffs Office. the wrong one. Smith took Eyerly from her car, then strangled her, Smith told investigators. He told police Eyerly's body was left in the Little Pudding River.

After Smith's confession, investigators sought corroborating evidence and attempted again to find Eyerly's body, but searchers were hampered by significant flooding and high river flows of the Pudding River since 1982, Sheriff Isham said. Marion County Deputy District Attorney Don Abar said Smith's knowledge of phone calls placed to Domino's before and after Eyerly's disappearance became a key part of the investigation. A caller who identified himself as "Dubar" called Domino's that night, ordered three large pizzas and then changed the orders to "Destroyers," a special that included all the toppings. The next day, a ransom call was made to Domino's. It was a call that never was acted upon or made public.

Smith told investigators Noseff made both calls. With that and other information, which investigators are withholding in order to remain sensitive to the family, they were confident Smith was telling the truth. Zens said he believes in volunteering his time in order bring closure to the murder victims' families. "For all of us, it's a chance for us to use the experience that we gained to give back to the community," said Zens, who worked for 28 years in law enforcement before retiring. Zens said a sense of justice awaits in any cold case homicide.

"Nothing is more dramatic than that," Zens said. getting your hands on a piece of information, and then you don't stop until you run out of places to look," Zens said. The cold-case team members are sworn in by the sheriff. Though they donate their time, the sheriff's office pays for some expenses. Their combined law enforcement experience spans decades of sleuthing Zens is retired from a sheriff's office in Milwaukee, Janssen is a retired Salem Police officer; McMullen, a retired FBI agent; and McCloskey, retired from Benton County Sheriff's Office.

Initially, William Scott Smith was considered a person of interest, though authorities declined to elaborate about why. Smith, a former trucker, told police he was on a long-haul trip at the time of Eyerly's disappearance. But the cold-case investigators in reviewing all leads learned that Silverton police had stopped Smith the day after Eyerly went missing. When Smith's alibi dissolved, the cold-case team contacted him in prison, where he was serving the first of two life sentences for murdering two other Salem women. Smith confessed in November and December of 2006 to murdering Eyerly Smith told cold-case investigators he had an accomplice, identified as Roger Noseff.

Noseff never was charged in connection to the case and died in 2003 before the cold-case investigation began. Smith told police he and Noseff intended to kidnap one of the Domino's employees and demand ransom but Eyerly turned out to be Former reporter, detectives share their recollections By Janet Davies Special to the Statesman Journal Two retired police detectives had one thought when they heard that Sherry Eyerly's murderer had finally confessed. Where's her body? Did he say where he took her body? Will Hingston and Larry Stephens knew all too well the agony that Sherry's family had suffered for 25 years, hoping and praying for some closure. As a newspaper reporter, I too had talked with the family and investigators about the case and had wondered with them all these years. That's why I felt compelled to talk to Will and Larry on Tuesday.

My first thought also had been about her body After a phone call, Will and I met for coffee at the Original Pancake House in South Salem. We were trying to cobble together our memories as the waitress periodically came by to refill his coffee cup. Eventually I told her what we were talking about, only to discover she was barely born when Sherry disappeared. Will and I parted after nearly an hour, and I called Larry once I got home. Larry was out in his car but pulled over so we could have a conversation, which also was dotted with questions about dates and places.

"It's been such a long time for the family," said Stephens, who retired from Salem police in 2000. "They've gone through a roller coaster of emotions, especially with the year." Sherry disappeared the night of July 4, 1982, when Hingston was a detective with the Marion County Sheriff's Office. He doggedly worked the case. About a month later, police identified a suspect, but the Salem man committed suicide. Over coffee, Hingston recalled how he was showing around John Catchings, a psychic hired by the Eyerly family When they went by the suspect's house, they found him hanging laundry on a line in his back yard.

The suspect had told Hingston earlier that he wouldn't take a polygraph but that he would talk to a psychic. Catchings chatted with him and gave him a brochure detailing the crimes that he had helped solve. Later that day in 1982, when Hingston and Catchings were at the abduction site, Hingston got a call from Stephens that the man had hanged himself. Hingston told me that the suicide never closed the case for him. "I always thought that whoever it was had an accomplice," Hingston said.

However, that suspect was not the accomplice that Eyerly's killer "would later reveal. I asked Will and Larry whether Smith's confession came as a surprise. Bot for- force investigating both the Redmond case and the earlier slaying of Rebecca Darling, who had been abducted from a convenience store Feb. 18, 1984. Her body, which had been dumped in the Little Pudding River, was found five weeks later.

Police working the Redmond case heard early on of a car seen in the area of State and Lancaster. During further investigation, they discovered that a man had called a tow company to retrieve his car from a ditch several blocks farther east. Stephens said the car had gone off the road and gotten stuck, apparently while the driver and Redmond struggled. The owner of the car, who had it towed to his home, was William Scott Smith. mer officers said no.

They knew the county's cold case team was re-examining the case, because they had been interviewed several months ago by the detectives. They told team detectives how they had questioned convicted murderer William Scott Smith a half-dozen times after Smith was imprisoned in 1984 for killing two local women. They told me that they felt in their bones that Smith was involved with other cases including Eyerly but he gave them information only about thefts and burglaries. One of those 1984 cases hit a nerve with area residents, because the back of the victim's car had been bumped by Smith's vehicle after she stopped on State Street at Cordon Road on April 7, 1984. That's how he got to the woman, Willamette University student Katy Redmond.

She later was found dead in a creek. rliaostatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6941 srs Cl Hingston, Stephens and Lee Erickson of the state police were assigned to a task mm that time of All-Stars Big Isagu iron battle tonight Statesman Journal .1.1 mi lit. krtf MaPS 11 Smith guilty in 2 Salem murders I 1 1 returns verdicf in trial by stipuhtk ge returns verdicf in trial by stipulation' mm mrjm mm 503.588.0181 800.688.0181 mapscu.com fi. I- Consolidate all of your retirement plans in one easy-to-manage, high-yield account. Add to or withdraw from this account at any time (within IRS regulations).

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