WARNING!: Description below may be disturbing to some readers.

This view in a residential area of Springfield, Oregon shows the former residence of the I-5 Killer (also known as the I-5 Bandit), a serial killer who operated along the Interstate 5 corridor from 1975 until his apprehension on March 7, 1981.  For privacy sake, the exact house is not marked or labeled.  More info below:

The killer's real identiy is Randall Brent Woodfield (born December 26, 1950), an American serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, robber, burglar and former football player who was dubbed the I-5 Killer or the I-5 Bandit by the media due to the crimes he committed along the Interstate 5 corridor running through Washington, Oregon and California. Before his capture, Woodfield was suspected of multiple sexual assaults and murders. Though convicted in only one murder, he has been linked to a total of eighteen murders and is suspected of having killed up to as many as 44 people.

A native of Oregon, Woodfield was the third child of a prominent Newport family. He began to exhibit abnormal behaviors during his teenage years and was arrested for indecent exposure while still in high school. An athlete for much of his life, Woodfield played as a wide receiver for the Portland State Vikings and was drafted by the National Football League in 1974 to play for the Green Bay Packers, but was cut from the team during training after a series of indecent exposure arrests.

Woodfield left Wisconsin in late 1974 and returned to Portland, feeling disgraced by his failure to maintain his football career. In early 1975, several Portland women were accosted by a knife-wielding man, forced to perform oral sex and then robbed of their handbags. Law enforcement responded to the string of crimes by having female police officers act as decoys.

On March 3, 1975, Woodfield was arrested after being caught with marked money from one of the undercover officers. Upon interrogation he confessed to the crimes, blaming poor sexual impulse control, which he claimed was a result of his use of steroids. In April 1975, Woodfield pled guilty to reduced charges of second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, but was freed on parole in July 1979 after having served four years.

Between 1980 and 1981, he committed multiple murders in cities along the I-5 corridor, targeting primarily young Caucasian women in their 20s; his earliest-documented murder was that of Cherie Ayers, a former classmate whom he had known since childhood, in October 1980.

By February 28, 1981, the investigation was now focused on Woodfield after detectives in Marion County assembled a call log showing Woodfield had placed calls via calling cards at payphones near the murder sites around the times they were committed.  On March 5, 1981, Woodfield was brought into the Salem Police Department for an interrogation after Lisa Garcia positively identified him in a photo lineup. His apartment in Springfield, Oregon, was subsequently searched two days later by warrant; inside, law enforcement discovered a spent .32 shell casing inside a racquetball bag, as well as a roll of tape that matched the tape found on the victims. On March 7, Woodfield was taken into custody after being positively identified by several Oregon robbery victims.  On March 16, indictments for murder, rape, sodomy, attempted kidnapping, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms were initiated from various jurisdictions in Washington and Oregon.

In the summer of 1981, Woodfield was tried in Salem for the murder of Shari Lynn Hull in Salem on January 18, 1981, as well as charges of sodomy and attempted murder (of Hull's coworker Beth Wilmot). Wilmot testified against him in the trial, and was key in the prosecution's conviction. Chris Van Dyke, son of actor Dick Van Dyke, was the Marion County District Attorney at the time and prosecuted the case. Van Dyke would later characterize Woodfield as "the coldest, most detached defendant I've ever seen." On June 26, 1981, after three-and-a-half hours of deliberation, Woodfield was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years.

In October 1981, a second trial was held in Benton County, Oregon, in which Woodfield received sodomy and weapons charges tied to one of the attacks in a restaurant bathroom. Prior to this trial, his counsel attempted to move the trial from the Willamette Valley; he felt that, owing to the publicity the case received, Woodfield would not get a fair trial there. The judge in the case denied counsel's request, along with a request to hypnotize a prosecution witness in an effort to determine if that witness had been influenced by the media coverage. Woodfield was convicted by the jury, and had an additional 35 years added to his already-instated sentence.

Despite the apparent links with countless other crimes and homicides, Woodfield would not be prosecuted for the majority of the crimes he was believed to have committed. Unable to afford multiple trials, the State of Oregon was satisfied with Woodfield's existing life sentence.

Woodfield has never confessed to any of the crimes of which he has been accused or convicted. Though he has only been convicted of one murder and one attempted murder, he has been linked via DNA and other methods to numerous unsolved homicides in the ensuing decades. Authorities have estimated his total number of killings to be as many as 44. CBS News named him one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.  He is currently incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Woodfield