World's Most Evil Killers - Season 5, Episode 17 - Dayton Rogers - Full Episode | Forensic Files

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

Dayton Leroy Rogers, known as 'The Molalla Forest Killer,' is a serial killer who mutilated and killed at least eight women in the US.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Dayton Leroy Rogers, the Molalla Forest Killer, murdered at least eight women in Oregon, showcasing his brutal and sadistic methods.

Key points

The Discovery of Bodies. A hunter finds a dead body in the Molalla Forest, marking the start of a horrific case.
Witnesses to Horror. Witnesses recount the frantic scene as they try to save Jennifer Smith after her attack.
Dayton Leroy Rogers Arrested. Rogers is arrested for the brutal murder of Jennifer Smith, revealing a dark history.
Discovery of Multiple Bodies. Detectives uncover a series of bodies in the forest, revealing a serial killer's work.
The Brutality of the Murders. Victims were found in various states of decay, with some missing feet.
Trial and Conviction. Dayton Leroy Rogers is found guilty of multiple murders and sentenced to death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

And there's a dead body.

0:25WatchAug 27, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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