Notorious serial killer suspected in death of Vietnam vet identified after 45 years

USA Today

12-05-2025

Notorious serial killer suspected in death of Vietnam vet identified after 45 years
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and DNA: New tech solving murders
From Ted Bundy to Jack the Ripper, new DNA technology is solving murder mysteries, finding serial killers, and exonerating innocents.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
A homicide victim who remained unknown for more than four decades has been identified as a 30-year-old Vietnam veteran whose death may be linked to the so-called serial Scorecard Killer, convicted of committing a string of California murders in the 1970s and 1980s.
Oregon State Police said DNA samples led to the identification of the unknown victim as Larry Eugene Parks, whose body had been found in July 1980 along Oregon's Interstate 5. His body was found a day after the body of Michael O'Fallon was found along Interstate 5 in Talbot, about 34 miles to the south, the department said.
Investigators suspected the two killings were related but ran out of leads and the cases went cold.
With his identity now known, the department said, investigators are working to resolve the 45-year-old case and confirm whether the killing is tied to Randy Steven Kraft, alternately known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler and the Freeway Killer.
According to author Jack Smith's "The Scorecard Killer: The Life of Serial Killer Randy Steven Kraft," Kraft was a computer programmer who preyed on hitchhikers and unsuspecting bar hoppers, torturing, mutilating and sexually assaulting his mostly gay victims.
Evidence from both Oregon killings had been used during Kraft's trial and remained with authorities in Orange County, California, until last year.
Who was Randy Kraft?
Bodies of multiple young men were found killed throughout Orange County and Southern California in the 1970s and early 1980s, several of them within a few miles of where Parks' remains were discovered.
Randy Steven Kraft was taken into custody in 1983 after being pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer who observed him swerving on Interstate 5 near Mission Viejo, in Orange County. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the officer found a dead male victim in the front seat of Kraft's vehicle along with empty beer bottles and an open bottle of the sedative medication Lorazepam.
The victim was later identified as Terry Lee Gambrel, a 25-year-old Marine corporal, who had hitched a ride with Kraft to meet friends at a party, the sheriff's department said in a separate release.
In the trunk, officers found a coded list that authorities believe Kraft used to record incidents involving at least 67 victims.
Alternately known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler and the Freeway Killer, Kraft was ultimately convicted in May 1989 of 16 murders in California, though authorities say he may be responsible for more than 60 killings along the West Coast and in Michigan. Now 80, he remains on death row at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California.
How the Parks case unfolded
According to Oregon State Police, Parks' family had lost touch with him in 1979. His last known whereabouts were in Pensacola, Florida.
The 1980 discovery of his unidentified body near Woodburn, in Oregon's Marion County between Portland and Salem, prompted the opening of a homicide investigation. However, detectives were unable to identify him and he remained a John Doe until last month.
Last year, an Orange County Sheriff's Department investigator contacted the department's cold case unit offering to help identify Parks' remains with the use of forensic genealogy. Possible family members were contacted and submitted DNA samples for comparison, leading to Parks' definitive identification.
Similarly, in October 2023, Orange County investigators used the technology to identity Michael Ray Schlicht of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whose body had been found in 1974 near in unincorporated Laguna Hills, now the city of Aliso Viejo, California. Detectives are likewise working to determine whether Kraft is linked to Schlicht's death.
Contributing: Whitney Woodworth