A woman is killed after being abducted from her apartment where her husband is later found murdered In the pre-dawn hours of January 21, 1970, a sense of unease settled over the small community of Junction City, Oregon. Julie Ann Thompson Dade, a 20-year-old Caucasian female, found her life cut tragically short in a series of brutal events that would leave the town shaken and a mystery that would endure for decades. The night’s horror began with frantic screams piercing the quiet of the Maple Street Apartments.
A witness reported seeing a man forcibly dragging a screaming woman, later identified as Julie, into a vehicle and speeding away.
The unfolding tragedy took a grim turn when, around 4:20 a.m., the Junction City Fire Department responded to a report of a burning 1962 Buick on Prairie Road. Beneath the engulfed vehicle, they made a horrifying discovery: the body of a young woman. It was Julie Ann Thompson Dade. An autopsy would later reveal the full extent of the violence she had endured; she had been beaten and strangled to death before the fire was set.
The investigation into Julie's death led deputies back to the Maple Street apartment she shared with her husband, Terry Dade. There, they found another horrific scene. Terry had also been brutally murdered, beaten to death in their home. In a small measure of solace amidst the carnage, the couple's infant son was discovered unharmed in his crib.
Despite an intensive investigation by the Lane County Sheriff's Office, the double homicide of Julie and Terry Dade grew cold. Detectives interviewed numerous individuals and pursued various leads, but no arrests were ever made, and no definitive suspect or suspects were ever publicly named. The motive for the savage attacks remained elusive, leaving a community to grapple with the senseless violence that had claimed the lives of a young couple just starting their family. The case of Julie Ann Thompson Dade and her husband remains an open and haunting chapter in the history of Junction City, a chilling reminder of a crime that has gone unsolved for over half a century.
