News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A man who killed a jogger in Camp Sherman nearly 40 years ago has died in prison of apparent natural causes.
John Arthur Ackroyd was convicted in 1993 of the killing of Kaye Jean Turner, who disappeared on a run in Camp Sherman in 1978. Turner, 35, left her rental cabin in Camp Sherman for an hour's run on the morning of December 24, 1978. She never returned. Her remains were found the next year, but it wasn't until 1993 that the State of Oregon was able to obtain murder convictions against Ackroyd and Roger Dale Beck in separate trials in Jefferson County.
Turner worked as a social services manager in Eugene and was staying at Lake Creek Lodge with her husband, Noel, and a group of friends for the Christmas holidays. An avid runner, she set out for her morning run of about eight miles and was never seen alive again.
Ackroyd, who worked with Beck at Santiam Junction for the highway department, acknowledged that he had seen Turner out running that day. In a macabre twist, in August of 1979 he led searchers to an area where he claimed to have found human remains while walking his dog. Searchers brought into the area found articles of clothing, hair, bones and a Timex watch.
Despite strong suspicions, it was difficult for investigators to build a trial-worthy case against Ackroyd and his suspected accomplice, Roger Dale Beck.
Ackroyd's alibi was a claim to have been in the area poaching with his friend and co-worker Beck on December 24, 1978. Police interviewed both men and others close to the case repeatedly but were not able to make an immediate arrest.
The Turner case heated up again when Ackroyd came under suspicion in the disappearance of his stepdaughter, 13-year-old Rachanda Pickle in 1990. Rachanda was presumed to have been killed, but despite an extensive search in the area of Hoodoo, Potato Hill and Lost Lake, no body was ever found.
But circumstances had changed for the Turner case, and with new witness testimony in hand, police made an arrest. Ackroyd was speedily found guilty by jury in October of 1993. Beck's trial followed in November 1993.
Key testimony came from Beck's former wife - who had been Ackroyd's high school sweetheart and divorced Beck in 1985.
Brown reported that in the Beck trial, "Pam Beck Ramirez of La Pine sat in the witness chair a few yards from her ex-husband and said Roger Beck had threatened her with the same fate Kaye Jean Turner met in 1978, unless she lied for him... It was fear of Beck that motivated her to lie to police several times in the early years of the Turner investigation, Ramirez declared."
Ramirez's testimony implicated both Beck and Ackroyd in the Turner murder, and she testified that Beck had bragged about the killing several times, especially when drunk.
Linn County sheriff's detectives arrested Ackroyd in 2013 for the murder of Rachanda Pickle. No information has been released as to what, exactly, led to the arrest 23 years after Rachanda's disappearance.
According to the Eugene Register Guard, "recent 'advances in technology' that were not available in 1990 allowed detectives to gain the information that led to Ackroyd being charged with murdering Pickle."
Ackroyd had not yet gone to trial for that murder at the time of his death.
The Oregon Department of Corrections reported that the 67-year-old Ackroyd was found unresponsive in his cell at approximately 12 a.m., Friday, December 30. He was the sole occupant. Medical staff began life-saving efforts to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 12:23 a.m.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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