Randall Woodfield - Interrogation, Search, Arrest

Interrogation, Search, Arrest

By February 28, the investigation was now focused on Woodfield, but by then the I-5 Bandit had struck three more times: in Eugene on February 18 and 21, and with another sexual assault in Corvallis on February 25.

On March 3, 1981, Woodfield was brought into the Salem Police Department for an interrogation. His apartment was legally searched two days later. Detectives said they were looking for someone who was familiar and comfortable with the I-5 freeway, as well as someone who used fake beards and moustaches as a disguise. Another portion of the killer's modus operandi was using tape to bind his victims; the type of tape found on the victims and the tape found at Woodfield's house matched. On March 7, Woodfield was taken into custody after being positively identified by several of the I-5 Bandit's victims during a police lineup. By March 16, indictments for murder, rape, sodomy, attempted kidnapping, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms were coming in from various jurisdictions in Washington and Oregon.

In Salem, Woodfield went to trial for murder, attempted murder, and two counts of sodomy. Convicted on every count on June 26, 1981, he was sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years. By December, after conviction of sodomy and weapons charges in Benton County, Oregon, 35 more years were added to Woodfield's sentence.

Retracing Woodfield's trail along Interstate 5, law enforcement eventually found other victims. Sylvia Durante, 21, was strangled in Seattle and dumped beside the highway in December 1979. Three months later, 19-year-old Marsha Weatter and 18-year-old Kathy Allen had vanished while hitch-hiking. Their corpses were found in May 1980 following the first eruption of Mount Saint Helens.

Despite the apparent links with countless other crimes and at least 13 more homicides, Woodfield would not be prosecuted for the majority of the crimes he was believed to have perpetrated. Unable to afford an endless string of trials, the State of Oregon was satisfied with Woodfield's existing life sentence.

In October 1981, Woodfield was tried in Salem for the murder of Shari Hull, as well as charges of sodomy and attempted murder. Chris Van Dyke, son of actor Dick Van Dyke, was the Marion County, Oregon District Attorney at the time and prosecuted the case. Woodfield was convicted of Hull's murder and sentenced to life in prison as well and sentenced to an additional 165 years for convictions of the other crimes.

Prior to a trial held later in 1981, Woodfield’s counsel attempted to move the trial from Willamette Valley; he felt that, due to the publicity the case received, Woodfield could not get a fair trial there. The judge in the case denied Woodfield’s request, along with a request to hypnotize a prosecution witness in an effort to determine if that witness had been influenced by the media coverage.

Currently, Woodfield is serving his sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. While he was charged with four murders, it is estimated that Woodfield committed as many as 44 murders, as well as upwards of 60 sexual assaults.