In the summer of 1980, Michael Sean O'Fallon, a 17-year-old Caucasian male from a suburb of Denver, Colorado, was celebrating his recent high school graduation with a hitchhiking adventure. His journey had taken him through Canada, and by July, he was making his way through Oregon. He had sent a postcard home in early July, but his family would soon lose contact with the young traveler.
His dream of seeing the world was cut tragically short, ending along a lonely stretch of highway.
On July 17, 1980, the grim discovery was made. Michael's nude body was found discarded along an entrance ramp to Interstate 5, about ten miles south of Salem in Marion County. The scene was brutal; he had been hogtied with his own shoelaces, sexually mutilated, and strangled. An autopsy would later reveal the presence of alcohol and Valium in his system, a combination suggesting he had been drugged before his death. The very next day, the body of another man, Larry Eugene Parks, was found nearby, killed in a similar fashion, deepening the mystery and fear in the community.
For years, the case grew cold, leaving a family to wonder what happened to their son. The break came three years later with the arrest of a prolific serial killer in California. Randy Steven Kraft, a Long Beach computer consultant, was apprehended in May 1983. A search of his car and home uncovered a trove of disturbing evidence, including a coded list that investigators believe was a scorecard of his victims. The list contained the entry "Portland Denver," which prosecutors linked to Michael O'Fallon, the boy from a Denver suburb murdered near Portland.
The evidence tying Kraft to O'Fallon's murder was substantial and specific. The method of binding and drugging the victim mirrored Kraft's established pattern in numerous other killings. Most damningly, a camera found in Kraft's garage was identified as belonging to Michael. It was inscribed with his mother's initials, "MJO," and bore a unique decal that both his mother and brother recognized. The film still inside contained pictures from Canada, tracing the final leg of Michael's journey. Although Randy Kraft was convicted for 16 murders in California and sentenced to death, he was never formally prosecuted for the homicide of Michael Sean O'Fallon in Oregon. Despite this, law enforcement officials consider him the only suspect in the case, which officially remains an open cold case with the Oregon State Police.
