The body of a veteran found by a highway in Oregon nearly 45 years ago has been identified. Police have linked his death to a serial killer
The body of a man found dead alongside Interstate 5 in Oregon has finally been identified after nearly 45 years – and police have named a Californian serial killer as the sole person of interest in the case.
Larry Eugene Parks was 30 years old when his body was found in 1980 and, until his identification last month, the circumstances of his disappearance were unknown to his family, police said.
Randy Kraft, who has been dubbed the “Scorecard Killer,” is the only person under investigation for the 1980 killing, Oregon State Police spokesperson Kyle Kennedy said.
“There’s some evidence that we’re processing to determine that link,” Kennedy said. “We are very confident that we have the correct person of interest.”
Kraft, now 80, was convicted in 1989 of brutalizing and killing 16 men over a decade in California and sentenced to death. He remains incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison and has denied killing anyone.
On July 18, 1980, police responded to a report of a body now identified as Parks along I-5 south of Portland near Woodburn. Police opened a homicide investigation at the time and unsuccessfully tried to identify the victim.
Parks, a Vietnam veteran whose family had lost contact with him in 1979, had last been seen in Pensacola, Florida, police said.
In 2024, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator reached out to the Oregon State Police Cold Case Unit and offered to help identify the remains using forensic investigative genetic genealogy. A genetic profile was developed from a blood sample and Parks’ identity was confirmed after possible family members submitted DNA profiles for comparison, according to police.
In 2023, the remains of a teenager believed to have been killed by Kraft in California were also identified using investigative genetic genealogy.
Kraft was pulled over in his vehicle on a California freeway in 1983 after a trooper spotted him driving erratically. In the passenger seat of the vehicle was a strangled U.S. Marine. In the trunk of Kraft’s vehicle was a coded list believed to tally 67 victims in California, Oregon and Michigan, according to police.
Prosecutors described Kraft, a former computer programmer, as a fetishist who kept some of the dismembered parts of his victims in his freezer.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.
