Randall Woodfield: How a potential NFL star became the I-5 serial killer believed to have committed 44 murders
Believed to be one of America's deadliest serial killers, the I-5 killer, Randall Woodfield murdered, raped, and committed robberies during his five-month reign of terror up and down the Interstate 5.
Randall was known to frequently change his MO and would use a variety of disguises. Oxygen's documentary 'Mark of a Killer' which airs on Saturdays at 7/6c looks at Randall's horrific killing spree and how the potential NFL player with the Green Bay Packers became a murderer.
Randall Woodfield
Randall had been born in 1950 and was called 'Randy'. There had been no indication that he would grow up to be a highly disturbed human being who became a serial rapist and killer. He came from a good family and had two sisters who were older than him. According to an Oregonian newspaper, his father had been a manager with a phone company while his mother was a stay at home wife. Randall's family was well-known and well-regarded in the community. However, Randall was the opposite. While he was a teenager, he was a "peeping Tom" and was apprehended for exposing himself to girls on a bridge in town. It is reported that his coaches knew of the exposing but chose to keep it under wraps. When Randall turned 18, his juvenile record was expunged.
Randall was very athletic as a child and was encouraged by his father to take up sports like football, basketball, and track. He later attended the Portland State University where he played for the Portland State Vikings as a wide receiver. At Treasure Valley, Oregon, Community College, where he played football for one season before a transfer, he was arrested for allegedly ransacking an ex-girlfriend’s home. He was found not guilty. While at PSU, his strange and disturbing behavior continued and he was arrested twice for exposing himself.
In a surprise move to many, he was even drafted into the NFL in 1974 by the Green Bay Packers. He was the 428th pick and since back then they did not believe in doing background searches, Randall's troublesome past failed to raise any red flags for them. His NFL career barely lasted for a year and he was released during pre-season on August 19, 1974. He was staying in Wisconsin and was also picked up by the Manitowoc Chiefs but was let go at the end of the season.
Neither team gave any explanation. While there are no records of him being arrested, a detective found he had reportedly been involved in 10 cases of indecent exposure across the state. A Wisconsin law enforcement officer recalls, years later, Randall “couldn’t keep the thing in his pants.”
Teammates’ and coaches’ memories of Randall vary, some remember him as unassuming and quiet, if a bit odd. While one of his teammates told the Sports Illustrated how Randall liked to groom himself and it appeared as if he paid great attention to how he looked. He was six feet, had well-defined muscles and a sly smile framed by what many might call a pornstache and it was known he never lacked any female companionship as well.
His crime spree
Once he was no longer a part of the NFL, Randall went back to Portland and the rampage started. He would rob women at knifepoint and would force them to perform sex acts on him, Daily News reported. There was time before he took to murder but before that, he cycled from job to job, residence to residence, romance to romance. He was 24 and losing control of his life.
Later, he was arrested due to a sting operation in a local park with an undercover female police officer on March 5, 1975. He pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree robbery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He admitted to some impulse-control issues and some “sexual problems' and one vice: He’d taken steroids to augment his physique. However, he was released and earned parole after just four years and was back out in 1979.
While attending his high school reunion he was able to reconnect with a classmate of his Cherie Ayers. According to Sports Illustrated, Ayers was found raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death in 1980. Ayers was Randall's first known murder victim and also marked the start of a five-month-long crime spree on Interstate 5. Some people believe that he has committed over 44 murders and around 60 rapes.
Randall also committed numerous armed robberies, targeting small businesses along I-5, including convenience stores, ice cream shops, and gas stations. He often sexually assaulted any female staff on the premises and left many witnesses. All those who had survived his attacks said that Randall would use various disguises. He would usually wear a bandage or athletic tape over his nose in the hope it would distract his victims and make it harder for him to be identified.
In 1981, he had snuck into a building in Oregon where he sexually assaulted two women- Shari Hull and Beth Wilmot. After sexually assaulting them, he shot both the women in the back of the head. Hull lost her life but Wilmot survived and called the police. He was arrested and his apartment was searched where a .32 caliber bullet was found as well as the same brand of tape he would use to bind his victims.
Aftermath
On March 16, he was indicted for the Hull murder along with charges in various jurisdictions of rape, sodomy, attempted kidnapping, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years. An additional 35 years were added to his sentence that December when he was convicted of sodomy and weapons charges for attacking a woman in a restaurant bathroom, according to Sports Illustrated.
Forensic technology was able to link Randall to five more murders in 2012. Darcey Fix, 22, and her boyfriend Douglas Altig, 24, who were found dead in their Portland home on Thanksgiving Day 1980; Donna Eckard, 37, and her daughter Jannell Jarvis, 14, found murdered in their home in Shasta County, California on Feb. 3, 1981; and Julie Reitz, 18, found murdered at home in Beaverton, Oregon were his victims.
Randall, 69, has never confessed to any of the killings and remains in the Oregon State Penitentiary.