A Serial Killer From Oregon Was Drafted By A Legendary NFL Team

On June 26th, 1981 a sentence of life in prison plus 90 years was handed down by a Marion County Judge after the jury deliberated for three and a half hours.  The man on trial was taken into custody, arraigned, and charged with murder, attempted murder, rape, sodomy, attempted kidnapping, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms.  It was believed the man convicted was responsible for enough deaths to be considered a serial killer...and just seven years before...he was selected in the NFL Draft.

Before O.J. Simpson, Aaron Hernandez, and Robert Rozier...there was Randall Woodfield.  Woodfield was born to a prominent family in Salem, OR in 1950 and raised in Otter Rock.  Two things began to present during Randall's teenage years, his ability on the football field and disturbing sexual behavior that manifest into much worse years later.

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The first documented incident was when Woodfield exposed himself to a group of girls on the Yaquina Bay Bridge while in high school.  It was swept under the rug by coaches so he would be kicked off the Newport High football team.  His record was expunged before attending Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, then on to Portland state University.

The other thing that went with Woodfield to Portland State was his penchant for criminal behavior.  A pair of arrests for public indecency in Washington State and Oregon didn't derail his football career.  Woodfield's Receiver's Coach, Gary Hamblet said of him:

"When he was with me, he was the nicest, most gentlemanly kids I ever knew. He was quiet and polite, hard-working and real coachable. He sucked in everything I tried to coach him."

Others that knew Woodfield believed he was living a double life.  A former teammate, Ted Spencer, said in an interview with the Portland Tribune:

...toward the end, he became very irregular. He started doing weird things.

The NFL didn't vet the way they do today, so to take a flier on a kid that may have some talent that can be developed wasn't unheard of when there were 17 rounds in the draft.  So in 1974, in Round 17,  The Green Bay Packers selected Woodfield.

Randall Woodfield was cut in training camp by the Packers effectively ending his football career...his criminal career would ramp up quickly.  The following year Woodfield was accused of robbing women of their purses and forcing them to perform oral sex.  He would later be arrested in a law enforcement sting at the hands of undercover female officers.  he confessed, served four years, and was released in 1979.  His trail of terror would begin 15 months later.

The First Murder

On October 9th, 1980 Cherie Lynn Ayers' fiancé found her beaten, stabbed, and sexually assaulted lifeless body in her Southeast Portland home.  Ayers and Woodfield were former classmates and knew each other from a young age.  Woodfield was a suspect in her murder from day one, but wasn't conclusively linked as the perpetrator until DNA evidence confirmed it in 2006.

After Ayers Woodfield would another target familiar to him.  Darcey Fix was an ex-girlfriend of a college friend.  He arrived at her home in North Portland intending to do her harm.  Doug Altig happened to be there as well.  Woodfield bound both of them and shot them execution style.  In 2012, DNA would tie Woodfield to both murders.

When he wasn't taking lives Woodfield was taking items.  He robbed a series of businesses along the I-5 corridor, earning the moniker "The I-5 Bandit".  He would also accost and sexually abuse women during some of these crimes in Washington State and Oregon.

Woodfield's next murder victim (and the only one he would be officially charged with killing) was Shari Hull in Salem.  He entered an office building that Hull and her friend, Beth Wilmot, were in.  He sexually assaulted both, then killed Hull and left Wilmot for dead.  Then in a span of 12 days in February of 1981, Woodfield sexually assaulted and murdered Donna Eckard and her teenage daughter Janelle Jarvis in their California home, then Julie Reitz in her home in Beaverton.

The End of The Terror Spree

At the end of February investigators were honing in on Woodfield based on evidence collected and associated with a number of his crimes.  Woodfield was charged with the murder of Shari Hull, along with the previously mentioned litany of other crimes, with Beth Wilmot the star witness for the prosecution.  A second trial in Benton County Oregon would see another 35 years added to his life plus 90 years for a conviction on sodomy and weapons charges.

Even though Woodfield was sentenced to life plus 90 years and an additional 35 years, he is eligible for parole in Oregon.  He has not been charged with any of the other murders even though DNA  has conclusively linked him to the crimes.  Authorities have said they do not intend to charge him due to the cost to taxpayers to prosecute a man they don't believe will ever be released.

That would change if he were ever granted parole.