*Please be aware that I will be sharing some very disturbing details in this post to do with murder, mutilation, dismemberment, physical and sexual abuse and assault, substance abuse and sex work. I will, as always, aim to be as sensitive as I can be with the details without taking away from the facts of the case. If you would like to contact me about this post, please feel free to do so at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com*
He's known as one of the most prolific, most evil and most sadistic serial killers that the USA has ever seen, Dayton Leroy Rogers. To the outside world he painted himself as a quiet family man, a supposedly happily married and hard-working father of one young son, who ran his own business that he built up from scratch repairing lawn mower machines. To his local community he didn't stand out, he came across as quite a polite, well-spoken man and appeared to not be a danger to anyone. Little did his family, friends and neighbours know, Dayton was leading a double life.
Away from playing the busy father who did all he could to help put food on the table to support his wife and child, on paper he sounded like such a great guy but what he really was under this facade and performance, was a cold-blooded sexual sadist, rapist, torturer of women and evil murderer. Whilst his wife and son were at home, Dayton was out searching the streets for vulnerable women in the red light district of Clackamas County in Oregon, USA. His victims of choice were young women who had fallen on to the wrong path in life, who'd struggled to battle drug addiction and worked on the cold streets, selling their bodies to either pay for their habit, buy some dinner or both. It was a hard life for them and any drop of kindness that came their way, they were going to snap it up like a shot. Dayton trawled through the streets looking for his victims and used his average appearance, nice, family guy persona, to lure, manipulate, lie and ultimately murder his victims and he grew such a taste for it that one victim soon became two, then three, then four and then so on. He even had a favourite location where he would dispose of his victims after brutally sexual assaulting them, torturing them, then murdering them and if that wasn't sickening enough, he would cut off their feet. He would promise sex workers more drugs and more money. There was women he had encountered before who worked the streets and he engaged with them but no violence took place, they were the lucky ones. He was a frequent customer of sex workers and like a lot of sexual sadists, the fantasies that he kept locked away in his mind were not good enough anymore, he wanted the real thing.
In his childhood it may come as no surprise when I tell you that the red flags were always there. He was born into a dysfunctional family on the 30th of September 1953 and his relationship with his parents was said to have been a very distant one, especially with his father who was reportedly very strict and abusive. Dayton was one of three children and despite his parents not exactly being the affectionate type, they decided to adopt more children. Dayton was not pleased with having more children join the family because he saw himself as the baby and there was a jealousy that the new kids would be taking his place as they were younger than him. Whatever was his cause for choosing to travel on to a very dark path is up for debate but as the years moved forward, Dayton became more and more rebellious and began indulging in petty crimes.
At the age of 16 he thought it would be a good idea to shoot at cars with a BB gun in the hopes of causing some unsuspecting motorist a serious accident. He enjoyed that feeling of having power over people, as he believed it to be, deciding who was going to live or die. This sadistic past time was met with a basic slap on the wrist and this became a running theme throughout the years. Dayton would get himself involved in trouble but managed to get out of it and the more he got away with things, the more he pushed and pushed to see how much more he could get away with. Recently we have seen a number of shocking murders that have been committed by perpetrators who have been given numerous pathetic sentences and allowed back on the streets to go that one step further to the point that some innocent person loses their life. There is an imbalance in the so-called justice system both here in the UK and in the USA, they'll lock someone up for the least little thing but in some serious cases they'll give short sentences or suspended sentences and it leaves you in utter disbelief.
The petty crimes escalated as he continued to get away with his behaviour and whilst all of this was going on he was harbouring these sick fantasies about sadistic sex with women, torturing them and murdering them. In 1972 he took a girl to the woods for some 'fun'. He was pretending that both of them being in the woods was some sort of kinky game that he was trying to play on her during a sex act. The girl, who was 15 at the time and he was 19, ended up being attacked with a knife but managed to talk him out of causing her any more harm and convince him to take her to the hospital. Luckily the girl survived and was in safe hands when she was able to finally get away from him.
For this shocking crime he was hardly punished (basically given 4 years probation) and so his violent fantasies and evil behaviour just continued to escalate. His temptation to carry out his fantasies was becoming overwhelming for him, despite being newly married at the time.
Not long after this, at the age of 20 he committed a violent attack on two teenage girls using a glass bottle but was able to get away with this too by pleading insanity. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and spent less than 10 months there before being released. With all that had gone on before and an obvious pattern emerging, you would have thought that it would have been obvious to the authorities that Dayton Leroy Rogers was a ticking timebomb but no, they chose to turn a blind eye which is, sadly often the case until something even more disturbing happens.
His first marriage had ended in divorce and that lady was lucky to have been able to get away from him unharmed but he soon found himself a new wife who he married in 1975. Probably feeling that he was untouchable at this point because he had been getting away with his crimes for so long, he took another step further with his sick fantasies and attacked another two teenage girls, one girl was brutally raped and can you believe this?........he was acquitted of this due to his excuse of having a mental illness. He was finally convicted and sent away for five years for coercion and spent just over five years behind bars before being released, the sentence was not enough.
Not long after serving time in prison he reportedly committed his first murder of a sex worker who was just 21 years old. This began a chain of horrific murders of eight women that authorities are aware of with one of them being sadly unidentified to this day. Each victim was vulnerable and working on the streets when he lured them away, manipulated them into providing sexual services and then suddenly turning violent towards these vulnerable women who found themselves trapped in his car and terrified at his mercy. He forced himself upon them and tortured them before strangling them. He also stabbed the women and placed their bodies in a wooded location known as the Molalla Forest, hence why he is often referred to as 'The Molalla Forest Killer.
Dayton's victims were all female aged between 16 and 35 and he was suspected of murdering eight women in total but there may be more unidentified victims. Seven of the victims were found at Molalla Forest, six were identified and one remains unidentified. Dayton was a chronic alcoholic so would often carry around miniature bottles of alcohol and orange juice, these were found at the scene.
A witness who had been walking through the forest had discovered a decomposed body and when the authorities arrived and a thorough search conducted, they found more bodies, it was clear that these poor women had suffered a great deal at the hands of their murderer. Feet had been cut off and one victim had a deep knife wound that started at her vagina and all the way up to her sternum, it was a very sickening scene indeed and only a complete monster could do such a thing.
Dayton was finally caught and arrested after customers had heard some commotion coming from a truck in a Denny's parking lot. Dayton had been assaulting another victim who sadly died from her injuries. Dayton was taken into custody and investigators were able to connect him to the innocent victims who's remains were found at Molalla Forest.
Dayton's murder spree was reportedly from 1983 to 1987 but how can anyone be really sure if he just committed murder in that space of time? Having his criminal background and knowing he had been having sick fantasies from a young age and committing petty crimes at 16, one wonders if he actually started killing way before 1983 but the victims are still yet to be identified?. What makes it very difficult to know for sure is his choice of victims always being sex workers and women who were dependent on drugs, often then poor women don't have family to rely on or run away and there's nobody to check up on them so they slip through the cracks and forever remain a mystery.
He was found guilty for his evil crimes and sentenced to death and that should have been the end of it but no, so began a pathetic merry dance of death penalty changed to life sentence, life sentence changed to death penalty, death penalty changed to life sentence. So right now, at the age of 72, Dayton Leroy Rogers is currently serving his life sentence at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla which is a city in Florida.
It's clear at the age of 72 that he'll never see the light of day again and it's a relief that he is no longer on the streets but what of the families of these poor women? I know there is often some judgement passed on families of sex workers, especially sex workers who lose their lives to drugs or murder. Some people ask where the families were and why didn't they stop their loved one? It's a very complicated situation and it's not really for us to judge but life can get in the way sometimes and a person's reasons for ending up on the streets isn't always so black and white. Drug addictions can take hold of someone and it can be hard for some families to get through to the person going through the addiction. There may have been families who had lost contact, these were the days before mobile phones and the internet so it wasn't so easy to track people down. Family members may have lost contact with one of these poor girls and then the next thing they knew they were seeing the news reports on TV. Whatever the situation, these poor girls and women did not deserve to lose their lives and to lose their lives in such a horrific way. Investigators believe that some of the horrendous mutilation (ie the cutting of the feet) may have occurred whilst the victims were still alive.
Why did Dayton Leroy Rogers do all of these evil and horrific things to all of these innocent people? I've watched him in a video where he is making a pathetic attempt at one of his trials to have his sentence reduced. Reading from a piece of paper he gives a really bad performance attempting to convey what he thinks is a display of remorse. I could even predict the pauses in between the fake sniffles. I don't buy his act of remorse for one second and I'm sure you don't either but seeing him stood there, this pathetic looking individual who caused so much hell, he was just a little nobody who had managed to fool so many people with his lies and manipulation over the years and for the most part, in the beginning he got away with it.
At 72 years of age, it'll soon be time for Dayton Leroy Rogers to meet his maker and what a hell of a disgraceful and disturbing legacy to leave behind. I'm sure his son and ex wives are still suffering and no doubt trying to recover from the trauma of being connected to such a person.
RIP to the known victims, may they always be remembered for who they were and not for the difficult times that they went through or the horrific and cruel ending of their lives......RIP Cynthia ''Dee Dee'' Diane DiVore (21), Maureen Ann Hodges (26), Reatha Marie Gyles (16), Nondace ''Noni'' Kae Cervantes (26), Lisa Marie Mock (23), Christine Lotus Adams (35), Jennifer Lisa Smith (25) and the unidentified lady who was also found as well as any possible others, you are all in our thoughts. Thoughts are also with the survivors and their families too.
Further Reading & Sources:
- Victims of Dayton Leroy Rogers | Find A Grave
- Dayton Leroy Rogers: Article | Statesman Journal
- Dayton Leroy Rogers | Murderpedia
- Dayton Leroy Rogers | Wikipedia
- State v. Rogers | Justia Court Documents
- Dayton Leroy Rogers: Article | Oregon Live
- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo
If you have made it this far in the post, I really appreciate your time and would love to hear your thoughts on this case, either below in the comments section, by contact form or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com. I hope you will join me again for my next post. In the meantime, I hope to see you elsewhere on my Socials.
Take care, stay safe and I hope to see you here in my next post x
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