0:00

Criminology is a true crime podcast

0:02

that may contain discussion about violent

0:04

or disturbing topics. Your

0:06

discretion is advised. Hello

0:37

everyone and welcome to

0:40

episode 297 of the Criminology podcast.

0:42

I'm Mike Ferguson. And

0:44

this is Mike Morford. Morford, how you doing,

0:46

man? I'm doing good other than

0:48

the fact I'm going through a little bit of

0:50

insomnia. We were talking about before we started recording

0:52

and it's something that I've had

0:54

before, but it's, you know, it lasts a couple

0:56

of days for whatever reason and that goes away

0:59

and I'm hoping that happens this time, but

1:01

I don't want to complain too much, but that's

1:03

what I'm dealing with. How about you? No,

1:05

I'm, I'm doing pretty good, but

1:07

I will say sleep. And

1:10

when your sleep cycle gets messed up,

1:13

you really feel it more

1:15

so than I think a lot of things sleep

1:18

just really kind of jacks you up when it's

1:20

not what it's supposed to be. Yeah,

1:22

it definitely throws you off a course

1:25

for the rest of each day because you're

1:27

not working under normal schedule. You don't have

1:29

the energy and I'm trying to cut

1:31

out coffee, which I love at night. So I'm sort

1:34

of dealing with it, but hopefully I'll be back on track

1:36

real quick. Let's go ahead

1:38

and give our Patreon shout outs. We

1:40

had Tony, Leslie, James, Trifa,

1:43

Abdullah, and Amy Beverly.

1:45

So that's a lot of great new

1:47

support. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank

1:49

you so much for taking the time to support the show.

1:52

It really helps us out. And for

1:54

anyone else that would like to, you can

1:56

go to patreon.com/criminology to get signed up. All

1:58

Right, buddy. It's time. Get into this

2:01

week's episode and we have an older

2:03

case that made shocking headlines when it

2:05

first happened, but in the decades since,

2:07

his ten have gotten lost in the

2:10

shuffle. Of countless other high

2:12

profile cases in Nineteen Seventy

2:14

Four. The. Child and family

2:16

disappeared on a camping trip and

2:18

organ and eventually their bodies were

2:20

found. It. Quickly became evident

2:23

that they were murdered. This. But.

2:25

Who killed the town and family and why?

2:27

Despite. A strong suspect in the

2:30

case, he remains unsolved sixty years

2:32

later. On August

2:34

Thirtieth. Nineteen Seventy Four. The

2:36

child and family headed off or an

2:38

impromptu Labour Day vacation. Twenty. Year

2:40

old Richard child and a logging driver. Had.

2:43

Planned use the long weekend for some

2:45

home improvement projects. His. Main task

2:47

would be six in their driveway at their home

2:49

and white city organ. Which. Required him

2:52

to haul gravel to their home. But.

2:54

His plans would arrive because the truck he

2:56

was going to borrow from his boss was

2:58

having sudden mechanical issues. So. With a

3:00

holiday weekend of downtime, He and

3:02

his wife twenty two year old Belinda. Decided.

3:05

To drive up to the Skew Mountains in

3:07

Oregon. In. Their Ford pick up with

3:09

their kids. Their. Daughter: a five month

3:11

old Melissa. And. David. Who.

3:13

Is belinda as five year son from

3:15

a previous relationship. Be. Cowed

3:17

Ends destination was in Copper,

3:20

a town that's no longer

3:22

officially exist. Six years after

3:24

this camping trip. Harper

3:26

was intentionally flooded in order

3:28

to create Applegate late. At

3:31

the time of the Calvin's camping trip. Blunders.

3:33

Mother Ruth Grace was living in Cop,

3:36

so this was one of the family's

3:38

favorite spots to camp because they could

3:40

visit with her while they were there.

3:43

When. The family got up in the

3:45

mountains. They chose a campsite along

3:47

Carberry Creek. About. A mile

3:49

away from Russo. It. Was just

3:51

the for them there along with

3:53

their dogs, a basset hound named

3:55

droopy. We. Don't know much about what

3:57

they did. That. Day after they arrive

3:59

the but it seems that they likely set

4:02

up camp and had some fun. The

4:04

next day Saturday apparently was uneventful as

4:07

far as we know. At. Around

4:09

nine am on Sunday morning. Richard.

4:11

And David locked up to the Copper General Store

4:13

about a mile away from the campgrounds in order

4:16

to buy a quart of milk. From.

4:18

What happened next? We can. Generally soon

4:20

that Richard and David made it back to

4:22

the camp site. And. The family had

4:24

breakfast. using. Some but not all,

4:26

the milk. The. Also probably change

4:29

into their bathing suits and plan on

4:31

going swimming. Exactly. What happened

4:33

after that? Remains a mystery to this

4:35

day. So. To me more

4:37

of the sounds like have a pretty

4:39

fun getaway. You're. Looking at being

4:41

trapped. Get. The whole family's

4:43

got the dog. Is a

4:46

little general store that they can

4:48

walk to to get some supplies

4:50

of thing they need to but

4:52

it sounds pretty fun. And

4:54

it seems like it's a place they've

4:56

been to before they're familiar with. so

4:59

so like they're going into uncharted territories.

5:02

Be. Cowed and had plans that evening to

5:04

go to Roost House just a short

5:06

trip away from the campsite to have

5:08

Sunday dinner with her on their way

5:10

back to Wait City, but they never

5:12

showed up. Ruth. Com worried and

5:14

went over to the camp site to check

5:16

on them. To. See if everything

5:18

was ok at the time. She thought

5:20

the worst case scenario was that the

5:22

A maybe they were having car trouble

5:24

and she could help them out. Richard.

5:27

Had been worried about the truck

5:29

battery recently. When. She got to

5:31

the campgrounds. The truck was parked there.

5:34

But. None of the calvin's were nearby.

5:36

The. Keys to the track run: the picnic

5:39

table next to an unfinished carton of

5:41

milk. Blunders. Purse was also

5:43

on the table next to a plastic

5:45

this painful of cold water. What?

5:48

Really concerned ruth is that Richards

5:50

was was on the ground next

5:52

to his. Pricey was. There.

5:54

Was money in the wall? Twenty. Three

5:56

dollars. The. Equivalent of about one

5:59

hundred and forty. Dollars today.

6:01

That's a lot of cash to leave

6:03

behind unattended. Especially. On the

6:06

grounds, it appeared that all their clothing.

6:08

Was. Stolen their truck. Except for

6:10

their bathing suits Drew Brees, their

6:12

dogs didn't come when Ruth call.

6:15

There. Was no sign of. Ruth. Waited

6:17

for a while just a family to

6:19

swimming nearby. But. She couldn't overcome the

6:21

feeling that something was wrong. Melissa's.

6:23

Diaper bag was still there. So. They

6:25

shouldn't be too far away. But. When

6:27

she called out to them, no one answered. The

6:30

family was very predictable, would never keep her

6:32

waiting after she cooked a big special meal

6:34

just for them. One. That they were

6:36

excited! Come over for. They hadn't even

6:38

started a pack of their camp site despite being

6:41

very late for dinner, The. Camp stove

6:43

was still set up. The. More roof

6:45

thought about it, the more she thought something

6:47

happened to them. She. Was sure of it. She.

6:49

Left the camp grounds and went straight to your

6:51

home to notify the authorities. She. Called

6:53

Jackson County Sheriff Dwayne Franklin's

6:56

office directly. Though. She reported

6:58

the family missing. There. Was no real

7:00

search effort on the part of please? at

7:02

least not right away. And it

7:04

seems like we talk about this all the

7:06

time. For. Whatever reason, in the

7:09

nineteen seventies and eighties when

7:11

someone disappear. Especially. An

7:13

a dog. There was a delay in the

7:15

search. Because. It was assume that

7:17

the person would come home or they

7:19

just didn't want to be some. Times

7:22

It definitely changes. We know now

7:24

that the first few hours after

7:26

a disappearance case or really the

7:28

most crucial. When. It comes the

7:30

gathering evidence and figuring out what

7:33

happened. Former. Oregon State Police

7:35

detective Richard Davis who investigate this

7:37

case in Nineteen seventy Four, told

7:40

Keogh be I find that time.

7:42

It was very com. Among police

7:45

agencies that time. That. With

7:47

missing persons, they don't do anything for

7:49

twenty four hour he added. I believe

7:51

that policies changed. I would hope so.

7:54

But. This wasn't simply a case of a

7:56

single adult. Deciding. To take

7:59

off or. The teenager who was

8:01

out partying with friends and lost track

8:03

of time. This was an entire family.

8:06

There. Was missing. including. Two

8:08

very young child. And

8:10

I do think a lot of this has

8:12

changed. For. The better. But when

8:15

you think back to. You.

8:17

Cases that we done in the

8:19

seventies and eighties and he around

8:21

that time frame. It does

8:23

seem as though there was kind of

8:25

us a wait and see attitude. A

8:28

little bit on the part of

8:30

authorities in. The. One thing that

8:32

is kind of always go. Grab.

8:34

My attention was that it seems

8:37

as though the police didn't always

8:39

kind of way this scenario. Okay,

8:42

you have. One. Adult.

8:44

Who. No one knows where

8:46

they are. You have a kid who's

8:48

late, a teenager. They. Assume maybe

8:51

they're out partying. Like I said

8:53

here though, this is an entire

8:55

family. And. When you look at.

8:58

Ten of the scenario. And

9:00

I'm sure Ruth would have relayed some

9:03

of these details. Eve that to

9:05

die for. That. God. In

9:08

small children. This. Seems to

9:10

me. If. You just. Look

9:13

at it on the surface. To.

9:15

Be. Something. That

9:17

you should look into right away.

9:19

Yet. Even if it's not a case of foul

9:21

play. To be something as simple as. They.

9:24

Got lost or somebody got hurt. By.

9:26

Sick. Either way, they serve jumped in action

9:28

sooner and she's six provide some kind of

9:31

help. Yeah. Me: I

9:33

think that's. That's. Pretty

9:35

easy to say here, but. I

9:37

don't know if it's just strange to

9:40

me that it doesn't seem as though.

9:42

Authorities. Looked at. The

9:45

situation. It was almost like.

9:47

That was up. a can of up. Standard

9:50

answer. Well. It's wait twenty

9:52

four hours. Everything? You know that? This.

9:55

Person or these people will show back

9:57

up. And I'm sure they did.

9:59

In. So. scenarios, but unfortunately

10:02

in a lot we know they didn't. Early

10:04

on Monday morning, Labor Day, a

10:07

dog was scratching at the door of the Copper General

10:09

Store. It turned out to be

10:11

Droopy, the Cowden's Basset Hound. He

10:13

had made his way back to the General Store alone.

10:16

This was when it really became clear that the Cowden

10:18

family had met some type of harm, and

10:20

the authorities scoured the Cowden's campsite for

10:22

clues. But they didn't find many. There

10:25

were no footprints, no tire tracks, no

10:27

blood, no ransom note. All

10:29

they really had was Droopy, the dog, left to

10:32

fend for himself. And whatever he knew,

10:34

he wasn't sharing. This all changed

10:36

the urgency for authorities, and they

10:38

felt the family were victims of an abduction. Richard

10:41

Davis told KOBI-5, they

10:43

were abducted during the day between 8 o'clock and

10:46

5. That's an assumption that

10:48

I make, because I doubt they would

10:50

have left willingly. He added, we

10:52

got some of the strangest and most bizarre

10:54

calls, tips, where they

10:56

were and what they were doing. They were

10:59

seen in Seattle. They were seen in

11:01

San Francisco. They weren't. None

11:03

of the leads or tips police received panned

11:05

out. Okay, so authorities are

11:08

into it at this point, and

11:11

they're getting a lot of leads

11:13

and tips, and it sounds like

11:15

sightings. And this is another

11:17

thing that fascinates me in cases

11:19

where, you know, people call in, and

11:22

I'm sure a lot of these people

11:25

mean well, and they

11:27

believe what they're telling the authorities. Now,

11:29

a lot of times it turns out

11:31

to be incorrect, but, you

11:33

know, Seattle, San Francisco, these

11:35

are not real close together.

11:38

And I think the police had to at least check

11:41

them out to see if the sightings were credible, but at

11:43

the same time, how likely would it be

11:45

that the family would just take off

11:47

on foot, leaving all their belongings, their car,

11:49

everything else behind, and wind up in

11:51

one of these other cities far away?

11:54

It just doesn't seem like it would be very

11:56

likely at all. No, it doesn't

11:59

seem like it. but that's kind of

12:01

the double edged sword, right?

12:03

You want as the police,

12:06

all of the tips you can get.

12:08

Unfortunately, you have

12:10

to check tips out and

12:12

that does take away from

12:14

maybe doing other things. Police

12:17

tried everything to find the Calhoun

12:19

family. Even things that seemed

12:21

somewhat pointless, areas were

12:24

searched and then researched, even

12:26

places where it seemed that it would be difficult

12:28

for a family on foot to get to. Richard

12:31

Davis told KOBI5, searchers

12:33

would go up on the Applegate

12:35

and look for buzzards because buzzards

12:38

will lead us to a body. This

12:40

was in January, buzzards are

12:43

migratory birds. There hadn't been

12:45

one in the Rogue Valley,

12:47

Applegate Valley since early November.

12:50

If the buzzards weren't around at all, they

12:52

wouldn't be able to lead anyone to

12:54

the Calhoun family. The lack

12:56

of any buzzards was both a relief

12:59

for police and a problem. It

13:01

could mean that the family was alive,

13:04

but if they were out there dead

13:06

someplace, perhaps searchers had missed the right

13:08

spot. On April 12th, 1975, almost

13:11

eight months after the Calhoun family vanished

13:14

and about seven miles from their campsite,

13:16

two men on a hike to Prospect for

13:18

Gold came across a human skull laying out

13:20

in the open. There was no mistaking

13:23

what it was. As they scanned the

13:25

surrounding area for the rest of the remains, they

13:27

spotted a headless body tied to a tree. At

13:30

that moment, they raced to get police. After

13:32

getting the news, Detective Davis didn't waste

13:35

any time calling in reinforcements. He

13:37

told KOBI5, right

13:39

then I mobilized everyone I can get. I

13:42

need help. I'm one man. Can't search

13:44

the forest. I need help. About

13:46

100 feet away in a cave, searchers

13:49

found three more bodies, a

13:51

woman, a child, and an infant. The

13:54

bodies had been hidden inside the cave, which

13:56

had been sealed off from the outside with large

13:58

rocks. In the minefield, of police, these

14:01

were clearly the bodies of the missing Cowden family.

14:04

And later a medical examiner would confirm that.

14:06

And this happens a lot in some of

14:09

the stories that we do where, you know,

14:11

people are going along doing

14:13

something and they stumble

14:15

across human remains. And I

14:18

think most of the time people would

14:20

call that in, obviously to police and

14:22

say, Hey, here's what I found. But

14:25

I think this scenario is very

14:27

much different. When you find

14:30

remains that are tied around

14:32

a tree, I think right away, you

14:34

know that something

14:37

really bad happened. And it

14:39

always seems that it's hunters, prospectors,

14:41

campers, people that are sort of

14:43

out of the way where people

14:46

usually don't go, they're the ones that find these

14:48

bodies and makes you wonder how many

14:50

other bodies are out there that somehow just people

14:52

never stumble across. But you

14:54

know, in these cases where there are remains

14:57

found that just so happens that the people are in the

14:59

right area. Yeah. Well, the chances

15:01

of me finding a dead body

15:03

or pretty slim. I don't do

15:05

a lot of hiking.

15:08

Uh, I'm not a hunter, so I'm

15:10

not going to be most

15:13

of the time in out of

15:15

the way places. Five-year-old David

15:17

had been killed by a 22 rifle

15:19

and so had his mom Belinda. Whoever

15:22

had attacked the Cowden's apparently

15:24

couldn't bear to shoot an infant. And

15:27

instead chose to brutally bludgeon baby

15:29

Melissa. It was unclear how exactly

15:31

Richard died, but the fact that

15:34

he had apparently been left tied

15:36

to a tree certainly paints

15:38

some vivid pictures of what could

15:40

have happened to him, the

15:43

medical examiner, although he couldn't prove

15:45

it, felt that Richard was likely

15:47

shot and that later his

15:49

head was removed by scavengers. Police

15:53

were left to consider the clues in the crime scene.

15:55

This area was seven miles upstream from

15:58

the family's campsite along Carbur. Creek.

16:00

Had they walked there or been driven there? Police

16:03

didn't know. One .22 caliber bullet

16:05

was recovered from the scene. This was

16:08

the only clue investigators had to work with. The

16:10

bullet had been fired from a Marlin

16:12

brand rifle. After news of the

16:14

discovery was made public, authorities received

16:16

a call from one of the volunteer searchers

16:19

who was adamant that in the weeks after the

16:21

Caudons were murdered that he had searched

16:23

that very cave where the bodies were located and

16:26

found it empty. The searcher was vast,

16:28

something like 25 miles, and most of it

16:31

was wooded. There were bound to be

16:33

a few caves that searchers encountered, so

16:35

police thought maybe the searcher was mistaken. However,

16:38

investigators wanted to rule out any

16:40

possibility of yet another unknown crime

16:43

scene, so they asked the volunteer

16:45

searcher to show them the precise

16:47

location he was talking about, to

16:49

see if he indeed had searched

16:51

the same cave. In

16:54

the Anne Rule book, but I

16:56

trusted you in other true cases,

16:58

Lt. Mark Kieser, lead

17:00

investigator on the case said, I

17:02

asked him to take us to the cave he meant

17:05

to make sure we were talking about the same thing,

17:08

and he did. He brought them to the

17:10

cave where the bodies were found. So

17:12

now police had to wonder whether

17:14

the Caudon family's killer had moved

17:17

their bodies to where they were

17:19

found sometime after searchers had looked

17:21

in that area. If there

17:23

was another crime scene out there someplace,

17:25

finding it would be like finding a

17:28

needle in a haystack. While police

17:30

didn't know where exactly the Caudons had been

17:32

killed, they had some idea about who

17:34

may have done it. One man on

17:36

the mine of authorities as a possible suspect was

17:39

Dwayne Lee Little, and he

17:41

was a lifelong Oregon resident who

17:43

he had spent some of his years at the

17:45

Oregon State Penitentiary. In 1966, Little

17:48

was convicted of murder. On November

17:51

2nd, 1964, when he was just 15

17:53

years old, he killed

17:55

16-year-old Orla Fay Fitts in

17:58

Cedar Flat, east of Springfield, Oregon. He

18:00

went out to ride her horse like she did daily, but

18:03

she hadn't returned by the evening in time for dinner,

18:05

which made her parents worry that she may have gotten

18:08

hurt during a ride. Her parents and

18:10

neighbors started to search for her along the route she

18:12

would normally ride in the woods. Twenty-one

18:14

year old Roy Stuckey, a neighbor, found

18:16

her horse, but there was no sign of

18:19

Orla. Her parents went to the police

18:21

who sent a search party. Stuckey continued

18:23

to search with them, and he was

18:25

the one who ended up finding her body. She

18:27

was lying on her back, still clothed, but

18:30

with many rips in her clothing. She

18:32

had been stabbed multiple times, and her throat

18:34

was violently slashed. The medical

18:36

examiner determined that Orla had been sexually

18:38

assaulted after she was killed. After

18:41

Orla's murder, the authorities canvassed the area

18:43

and asked for samples of blood from

18:46

the men living in the neighborhood. This

18:48

included the Little family and

18:51

fifteen-year-old Dwight, whose mother

18:53

allowed him to provide the sample. Orla

18:56

and Orla's brother had once been friends,

18:58

but they had fallen out of touch

19:00

and stopped hanging out. At the

19:02

time of the murder, he attended

19:04

Springfield Junior Academy just outside

19:07

of Eugene, Oregon. On

19:09

November 18, 1964, Duane Lee

19:12

Little was arrested and placed at

19:15

the Skipworth Home for juvenile offenders.

19:18

Two days later, a grand jury

19:20

indicted him, and he was charged with

19:22

murder. His trial was delayed, as

19:24

he was a minor at the time. Eventually

19:27

the Supreme Court of Oregon ruled that

19:29

he could be tried as an adult.

19:32

His parents and his grandparents began to

19:35

sell their belongings and assets to help

19:37

pay for a proper defense

19:39

for him. His girlfriend, who

19:41

was just thirteen years old, when

19:43

Orla was killed, still

19:45

supported him too. Her

19:47

family gave the Littles fifteen

19:49

hundred dollars for his defense.

19:52

That's a lot of money back then. It's like

19:54

handing someone fourteen thousand dollars

19:57

today. So no doubt, you know, Little

19:59

had a good time. had quite a

20:01

bit of support. You know, his

20:03

parents and his grandparents were in

20:06

his camp and that's pretty

20:08

normal, right? You're going to support your

20:10

child, your grandchild, but his

20:13

girlfriend's parents giving what back

20:15

then was a lot of money to

20:17

help in his defense, they must

20:19

have supported him as well. Yeah,

20:22

what I find interesting is that they rounded

20:24

up a suspect pretty quickly and we don't

20:26

know all the details and all the evidence

20:29

against Little, but it seems like they were

20:31

looking at his blood type. Obviously they didn't have DNA

20:33

back then, so maybe all they had

20:35

was a blood type and it

20:37

seems like just based on that little bit of

20:39

information it was enough to sort of

20:41

make a case against him. What seems

20:44

strange that they would be able to

20:46

make a case just on blood type

20:48

alone, I'm not ruling it out, but

20:50

like you said the facts about his

20:53

case are pretty hard to find. I

20:55

did find it interesting

20:57

that his mother allowed

20:59

him to provide the sample. My thought

21:01

is she probably had no

21:04

idea or thought, yeah

21:07

let's rule him out because obviously my

21:09

son wouldn't have done this. Little

21:13

was actually interrogated though by

21:15

a psychiatrist and a physician, not

21:17

by detectives. After he was

21:19

injected with sodium pentathol, one of

21:21

the many drugs also known as a truth

21:23

serum. Despite the large sum of

21:25

money donated to him, none of it

21:27

helped Little at all. On February 10th

21:30

1966 he was found guilty of the murder

21:33

of Orla Fitz. One day later

21:35

he was sentenced to life in prison by Lane

21:37

County Circuit Judge Roland Rodman. He

21:39

was 17 at the time, the youngest

21:42

prisoner ever inside the facility. Those

21:44

at the prison, both staff and other prisoners,

21:46

actually looked out for him due to his

21:48

young age. When Little was

21:50

just seven years old, he was in

21:52

an accident where he was hit in the head

21:54

with a baseball bat. He was badly

21:57

injured and left with a permanent

21:59

indentation. In his skull he

22:01

had to wear a special headgear

22:04

for five months after he was released from the hospital

22:07

Following the accident due to

22:09

the possibility of another injury to his brain

22:11

He was not allowed to play any sports while

22:13

he was growing up He didn't ever

22:16

fully recover from the injury caused

22:18

by the baseball bat He suffered

22:20

from severe headaches and he had a

22:22

lot of difficulty in school especially

22:25

with language Tasks

22:27

like writing and spelling words

22:30

properly his IQ is

22:32

apparently estimated to be between 89 and 94 But

22:36

it's of course unclear how much of that

22:38

was related to the injury the rest

22:41

of his upbringing was rather unconventional He

22:44

and the rest of his siblings were taught

22:46

how to use firearms at an early age

22:49

As young as five or six years old, so

22:52

we've talked a lot more

22:54

about head injuries they seem to come

22:56

up in a lot of cases because

22:59

it is thought to be a contributor

23:01

or You know,

23:03

maybe a reason behind why? People

23:06

do some of the things that they do. This

23:09

sounds like a pretty bad head

23:11

injury I mean if you're hit

23:13

in the head with a bat so

23:15

hard that it leaves a

23:18

Permanent dent. Okay,

23:21

that's pretty rough. And the other thing that

23:23

jumped out at me was you know Using

23:26

a firearm at the age of five

23:28

or six. That is

23:30

very young I understand,

23:33

you know, all families are different, you

23:35

know, I'm sure fathers

23:37

take their their kids hunting

23:40

teach them how to use firearms,

23:43

but five or six seems Very

23:46

young to me almost

23:48

unheard of yeah, we're not talking the

23:51

1800s on a ranch or something like

23:53

that You know the families would

23:55

have to survive and maybe had to

23:57

hunt or you know fend off attackers

23:59

things like that and children had

24:01

to learn at a younger age. This is well

24:04

into the 1900s, so

24:07

it is pretty unusual. Little's

24:09

parents were afraid of retribution from a

24:11

neighbor as well as from Little's paternal

24:14

uncle over separate feuds. This caused

24:16

the family to be reclusive and paranoid. They

24:18

also started collecting their own water out of

24:20

fear that someone had poisoned the main supply

24:23

of water leading to their home. Eventually,

24:25

their home burned down and

24:27

nothing was able to be recovered from their ruins. Two

24:30

years before this, Little's mother was charged

24:32

with arson after the home of one of her

24:34

friends burned down. The charges were dropped

24:37

and she wasn't investigated for the fire at the Little

24:39

home. In 1956, Little's

24:42

father was shot in the groin

24:44

area by a child they were

24:46

fostering. Though some reports and rumors

24:48

claim that it was actually Little's

24:50

paternal uncle, not a child.

24:53

He was pretty badly injured and lost some

24:55

of the function in his right leg. Well,

24:59

I'm just going to say it right now. If it was

25:01

a child, it's probably because you're

25:03

allowing five and six year olds to

25:06

handle firearms. There's a good

25:08

chance you might get shot in

25:10

the groin. Yeah, where they could shoot

25:13

themselves accidentally and then either way it

25:15

doesn't seem like a safe situation. Later,

25:18

a tree fell on Little's father and

25:20

he suspected that it had been cut

25:22

down on purpose to harm him. He

25:25

never recovered from that incident.

25:27

Soon after this injury, a large

25:29

fire destroyed over $30,000 worth

25:33

of the Little family's logging

25:35

equipment. By 1961, nine of

25:38

their cows and two of their dogs had

25:40

been poisoned and another two cows had been

25:43

shot to death. Also in 1961, Little's

25:46

father shot and killed his brother, Little's

25:49

paternal uncle, the one the

25:51

family had been afraid of for so

25:53

many years. His father was subsequently sent

25:56

to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. In

25:58

1963, He

26:00

escaped from the hospital and the

26:02

family fled from Medical Lake Washington

26:05

to Tennessee. Eventually, they

26:07

moved to Oregon. And the

26:10

one thing that I couldn't help but think of

26:12

as we were going through the

26:14

research was that there was a

26:16

lot going on with this family.

26:19

You know, you've got a feud with

26:21

a paternal uncle. And it

26:23

sounds like they were pretty

26:25

paranoid about that. The

26:27

mother was thought to be

26:30

an arsonist. They were collecting

26:32

their own water for fear that

26:34

the main water supply was going to

26:36

be poisoned. There was just a lot

26:38

of strange things happening inside

26:41

this family. And if you're

26:43

a child growing up in that environment and you're

26:45

seeing all that stuff and experiencing it and you've

26:47

got a head injury on top of that, you

26:50

have to wonder how does that affect somebody's long-term

26:54

outlook. Well, my thought is that

26:56

it's not going to be great. The

26:59

effect, right, it can't be good

27:02

on a young kid. Now, is

27:04

it going to make them murder? And

27:07

that's kind of the thing that we

27:09

always get into. You

27:11

know, a bad childhood, bad

27:14

home life, abuse, all of

27:16

these things can be contributing

27:19

factors to someone

27:22

doing what they do later on in

27:24

life. But we also know that there

27:26

are a lot of people that go through

27:29

some of the very same things and

27:31

don't grow up to hurt people. It's

27:35

part of the fascination with true crime, right?

27:38

Why do people do what they do? And

27:41

oftentimes you have to look into their

27:43

childhood and kind of examine it. And

27:45

that's what we're doing. Despite Dwayne

27:47

Little's life sentence, he spent just eight

27:49

years at the Oregon State Penitentiary in

27:51

Salem, where he was released on parole.

27:54

He slowly began the process of rehabilitation,

27:57

first by starting the upward-bound educational program.

27:59

program in 1967, which

28:02

he attended for a full year. He

28:04

was granted field trips outside the prison after

28:06

he joined the lifers club. One

28:08

prison staff member monitored him during these trips,

28:11

specifically to observe his relationship with the

28:13

women. Instead, he treated

28:15

all persons with respect and understanding.

28:18

According to Ann Rule's book, they also

28:20

thought very highly of Little and

28:22

felt that he was fully rehabilitated. One

28:25

prison staff member wrote, I am certain of his

28:27

remorse for the offense that he committed and the

28:29

girl he killed. I would welcome

28:31

him as a next door neighbor. And

28:34

that's pretty high praise, in

28:36

my opinion, because to me the

28:38

litmus test is kind of

28:40

always that, you know, would you

28:43

want this person living next door to you?

28:45

You can say great things

28:48

about someone. You can believe

28:50

that they've been rehabilitated. But

28:53

if you're okay with them living right

28:55

next door to you, to me

28:57

that says a lot. Yeah, that's a

29:00

prison staff member talking that way,

29:02

saying that stuff. So this

29:04

is somebody that would see this person firsthand

29:06

and know what's going on with him in

29:09

his day-to-day life. And for them to feel

29:11

that comfortable, then it seems to be

29:13

a pretty good endorsement of him. On

29:16

February 6, 1974, Little

29:18

was moved to the Portland Men's Center so

29:20

he could participate in their work

29:22

release program for months. He worked

29:24

at a concrete factory for just $2.50

29:26

an hour. He

29:30

was granted parole on May 24, 1974, but he was

29:32

barred from visiting Lane County or Benton

29:37

County, both in Oregon. By

29:39

the fall of 1974, Little was living

29:41

with his parents in Jackson

29:43

County, Oregon. It's about a

29:45

half an hour away from the campsite the

29:48

Cowden family chose, just

29:50

up Upper Applegate Road. He

29:53

began working for a steel company in Medford and

29:56

made $4.75 an hour. dollars

30:00

an hour today. In his free

30:02

time, he often swam in the Applegate

30:04

River with his friend. And

30:06

that kind of jumped out at me. Four dollars and 75 cents

30:09

an hour in 1974 seems

30:11

like pretty good money. Yeah.

30:13

I took when it started working minimum wages, 335, and that

30:16

was like 1986. Yeah,

30:20

I was thinking in the late 80s,

30:23

early 90s, I was making five bucks

30:25

an hour or something. On

30:28

August 30th, the same day the Cowden family

30:30

started off for their vacation, Dwayne

30:32

Little was delivering a load of steel to a

30:34

work site in Crescent City, California, just

30:36

over the border from Oregon. Little was

30:39

also spotted at a restaurant near Copper on

30:41

August 31st at around noon. It's

30:43

believed by some that after he completed the

30:45

job of hauling the steel since

30:47

it was a long holiday weekend, he stopped

30:50

off near the campgrounds on his way back

30:52

home. When he did, he saw

30:54

the Cowden family, or at least one of them.

30:56

The most compelling theory, and the one that fits

30:59

in with his criminal history, is

31:01

that Little saw Belinda and Baby Melissa while they

31:03

were alone. This probably would have been

31:05

while David and Richard were at the general store.

31:08

Little probably wouldn't have seemed threatening

31:10

at first, parking near

31:13

their campsite or walking up to

31:15

the creek. But if it was

31:17

him, then he would have had a rifle. And

31:20

it's likely that Belinda was holding Melissa.

31:22

He would have been able to threaten

31:24

Baby Melissa to get Belinda to comply,

31:27

maybe hoping to buy some time thinking

31:30

that Richard the husband would

31:32

be returning any minute. And

31:34

when Richard didn't arrive back at the campsite,

31:37

he would have been surprised and Little could

31:39

have threatened all three of Richard's

31:41

family members in order to get

31:43

him to comply. In the

31:45

annual book we mentioned earlier, Richard's

31:48

brother Wes said, I'm sure things

31:50

were out of control before

31:52

he even knew there was a problem. Richard

31:55

was likely forced at gunpoint to take

31:57

off his watch, toss his wallet away,

31:59

and then from himself and

32:01

surrender the keys to his truck if

32:04

they hadn't already been sitting out while he

32:06

and David walked to the general store. In

32:09

this theory that Little was the perp, he

32:11

then probably forced the family into his own

32:13

pickup truck with Richard driving. One

32:16

elderly couple driving that day recalled seeing

32:18

a pickup truck that matched Wayne Little's

32:20

pickup with two men inside and

32:22

a woman sitting in between them. The

32:24

truck was memorable to the couple. The female

32:27

witness told KOBI5 News,

32:29

the reason I remember it is the road

32:31

was very narrow and we were going

32:33

slow and she looked to be crying. The

32:36

witness didn't manage to remember the license plate

32:38

number or anything else about the truck or

32:40

the people inside of it. It's

32:42

possible that this could have been Richard driving

32:44

Little's truck with Belinda terrified and

32:46

crying in the middle. Little

32:48

would have been the man in the passenger seat

32:50

holding his victims at gunpoint. Belinda

32:52

was likely holding Melissa in her lap and

32:54

David was probably behind him and

32:56

the elderly couple just couldn't see him in the truck. Once

32:59

he had driven far enough away Little

33:01

probably forced him out of the car and up

33:03

the hill at gunpoint. The order of

33:06

things is of course unknown but tying

33:08

Richard to a tree strongly implies that he was

33:10

either forced to watch the rest of his family

33:12

being killed, left for dead afterward

33:14

or both. And to

33:17

me this is a very

33:19

terrifying prospect. Being forced

33:21

to comply under you know

33:24

threat of your your wife, your

33:26

kids, your family and then

33:29

possibly being tied to a tree

33:31

and having to

33:33

watch terrible things

33:35

done to them. To

33:37

me that's unimaginable. And

33:39

you can see how wanting to

33:42

protect them he would have complied and figured

33:44

maybe if I do what he's

33:46

saying then they'll let me go. But in

33:49

the other hand you could see how maybe in that

33:52

situation once you're tied up anything

33:54

can happen so maybe you're better off trying

33:56

to make a defense and hopefully they're able to

33:59

run away. You have to make

34:01

all those choices in a split second so it probably

34:03

wasn't easy no it never is

34:05

and a lot of people in the

34:07

cases that we cover are

34:09

confronted with this type

34:11

of decision. You know

34:14

whether it's it's a woman who's

34:16

been adopted you do

34:18

i fight do i flee. You

34:21

know in this case it's richard

34:24

while comply and hopefully

34:27

save my family that way or

34:30

do i make a stand and

34:32

maybe give my family time to

34:34

get away not easy

34:36

decisions to make because you

34:39

don't know how things are going

34:41

to play out for one you

34:43

don't know what's in the mind

34:45

of a perpetrator. Have they

34:47

already made the decision that they're

34:50

going to kill and that's a

34:52

that's a big question that

34:54

people don't know the answer to

34:57

in this case though it's pretty obvious. At

35:00

a certain point the perpetrator made

35:02

the decision that they were

35:04

going to leave anyone a lot. One

35:07

family of tourists from los angeles

35:09

that had stopped at the copper

35:11

campgrounds later that evening was tracked

35:13

down in interview. They did

35:15

remember seeing something very similar to

35:18

what the elderly couple had reported

35:20

in the and rule book the father

35:22

in the family of witnesses said. Two

35:25

men and a woman pulled up in a

35:27

pickup truck they acted like they were

35:29

waiting for us to leave and frankly

35:31

they made us nervous so we moved on.

35:34

This sighting would have been right

35:36

near if not at the campsite

35:38

the calendons chose but it's not

35:41

believed to be the calendon family

35:43

that these witnesses saw instead.

35:46

It was possibly doing little and

35:48

his parents the truck they

35:51

saw match the description of littles

35:53

parents pick up. Too many

35:55

people the possibility that way little

35:57

and his parents were there at the

35:59

crime scene. being together following the abductions

36:01

and murders may not sit well, because

36:04

it's hard to imagine a guy that just commits

36:06

such a terrible crime and brings back

36:08

his parents to the scene. But Dwayne Little's

36:10

mother always stood by and supported her son.

36:13

In the Anne Rule book, she's quoted as saying, as

36:16

long as he tells me he's innocent, I

36:18

will believe him. She called him her

36:20

perfect boy, even while he was behind

36:22

bars. One clue that may

36:25

solidify the Little family being there is

36:27

that the Littles, Dwayne and his parents, had

36:29

all signed the guest book at a cabin

36:32

up Sturgis Fork, about half an

36:34

hour from the campsite and about an

36:36

hour from their home, placing them in

36:38

the area. At

36:40

the time the Caldons were murdered, Dwayne Little

36:43

would have been 26 years old. Investigators

36:47

brought him in for questioning, but he

36:49

claimed to know nothing about the disappearance

36:51

of or murder of the

36:53

Calden family. He claimed that he had taken

36:55

the longest route home from Crescent

36:58

City, conveniently avoiding the

37:01

shorter direct route that went

37:03

straight through copper. When

37:05

investigators realized that Little's mother had

37:07

purchased a Marlin .22 caliber rifle,

37:11

the same kind of rifle used to kill

37:13

the Caldons, they got to search for it

37:15

for her home. The rifle

37:17

was not there. They also searched

37:19

the Little's pickup truck and found nothing,

37:22

though they felt that it was too

37:24

clean, as if he had spent

37:26

a lot of time cleaning it

37:29

out, perhaps to get rid of evidence.

37:32

In January 1975, Dwayne

37:34

Little was arrested for having possession of a

37:36

firearm. His girlfriend had gotten upset

37:39

with him over suspicions of cheating and

37:41

decided to inform the police that she had not

37:43

only seen Little with a .22 caliber pistol, but

37:46

that they had used it together to go target shooting.

37:49

This arrest was the only way investigators could think

37:51

of to be able to speak to Little again.

37:54

He refused to cooperate with the investigation into

37:56

the Calden family murders. Detective

37:58

Davis told KOBI-5 news.

38:00

I told him, you take a polygraph and

38:03

I had a polygraph examiner standing by, and you

38:06

take a polygraph on account of the murdered

38:08

Cowden family, although the polygraph I

38:10

can't use in court. You take the

38:12

polygraph, I'll dismiss this gun charge,

38:15

and he said no. He was basically presented

38:17

with a choice between being sent to prison

38:20

for the firearm violation or

38:22

cooperating by taking a polygraph examination,

38:25

and in exchange, having the

38:27

felon in possession charge disappear. Still,

38:30

little refused. His parole was revoked

38:32

in May 1975, and he was

38:35

sent back to prison for the violation. While

38:37

in prison, as he was the

38:39

first time behind bars, he was a model

38:41

prisoner. And I think more, you have

38:44

to take a look at this deal and

38:46

then ask the question, why wouldn't

38:50

Dwayne Little take this

38:53

polygraph examination? I

38:55

mean, this is a good deal. All

38:57

you have to do in order to

39:00

not go back to prison is take a

39:02

polygraph. Well, it kind

39:05

of makes people think there's

39:07

only one reason why he wouldn't want

39:09

to take the polygraph, and it's because

39:11

he knew that he was going to

39:13

fail. And he would

39:15

rather have his parole revoked

39:20

than give the authorities

39:23

ammunition against him

39:25

for these murders. Yeah,

39:27

he had to be worried about what

39:29

that polygraph test would reveal in relation

39:31

to the Caudons if he was willing

39:33

to go back to prison over it. Yeah,

39:36

because we see time and time again, most

39:38

people are willing to do anything,

39:41

including committing very

39:43

serious crimes, just

39:46

to avoid going back to

39:48

prison. And here, all you have to

39:50

do is take a test, a

39:52

polygraph. So I think

39:54

that it tells you something. Now, does

39:57

it mean conclusively that he

39:59

was... the killer? No, absolutely

40:01

not. But when you

40:03

put all these things together, it's

40:06

pretty easy to see why many

40:08

people point to Dwayne Little as

40:11

the most probable suspect. In

40:14

1976, another inmate who

40:17

was housed with Little contacted authorities

40:19

to tell them that Little had

40:21

confessed to him, that he had

40:23

killed the Caledon family. Most

40:25

Joe House informants aren't believed,

40:27

but this one not

40:30

only passed a polygraph test,

40:32

but he also offered to lead investigators

40:34

to a hidden stash of weapons that

40:37

were going to be used in an

40:39

upcoming prison break. This would obviously

40:41

come at a great risk to the inmate

40:44

who would be trapped with the men he

40:46

snitched on. There was really no

40:48

reason for him to lie. Authorities

40:51

expected to be able to take this

40:53

new information to a grand jury in

40:56

Jackson County and hoped that they

40:58

would return an indictment so

41:00

that Little could be arrested and charged

41:03

with the Caledon family murders. It's

41:05

unclear whether no indictment was returned

41:07

or whether the case was ever

41:10

even presented to a grand jury,

41:12

but Little was never charged with

41:14

the four Caledon family murders. On

41:16

April 26, 1977, Dwayne Little was granted parole again.

41:22

Little got married in 1975 and

41:26

would live with his wife and

41:28

her family in Hillsborough, Oregon, where

41:30

he had a job lined up

41:32

at a potato chip factory. So

41:35

I want to take a step back

41:37

here, morph, and we talked about

41:41

Dwayne refusing to take

41:43

the polygraph. Well, it

41:45

turns out that he

41:47

didn't even do two more years in

41:49

jail. So was

41:52

it that bad of an idea

41:54

not to take the polygraph? This is assuming

41:57

that he was guilty. He wasn't. involved

42:00

in the murders. And then the

42:02

other thing is that he gets

42:04

married in prison. He comes

42:06

out after parole with

42:09

a wife, a place to

42:11

live, and a job. This

42:13

guy seemingly had no problem finding

42:16

jobs. It seems like a perfect

42:18

opportunity to have a second chance and get

42:21

back on the right track. And

42:23

it seemed he really dodged a bullet in

42:26

not being indicted by this grand

42:28

jury they were trying to set up because

42:30

he easily could have been battling

42:33

a murder charge had that

42:35

happened. And that takes me back to

42:37

my original question, which was, maybe

42:40

it was smarter than we originally

42:42

thought not to take the

42:44

polygraph tip. The one thing I

42:46

wonder is if Dwayne Little

42:48

himself decided not to take that

42:50

polygraph or if he

42:52

was given that advice by another

42:54

inmate or his attorney. Either

42:57

way, it seemed to have been to

42:59

his benefit not to take that polygraph. Yeah,

43:01

it absolutely does. And I thought

43:04

that he was really taking

43:06

a big chance. But,

43:09

okay, less than two

43:11

years additional in prison. Maybe

43:13

it did really work out in his favor.

43:16

On June 2nd, 1980, a

43:18

23-year-old woman given the pseudonym

43:21

Margie Hunter in Anral's book was

43:24

experiencing car trouble. She was broken

43:26

down on the side of the road near Portland when

43:28

Dwayne Little spotted her. Margie,

43:30

who was pregnant at the time, gratefully

43:32

accepted his help and his offer

43:34

of a ride. They were both living

43:36

in Tigard, Oregon at the time. When

43:39

she was inside his vehicle, Little attacked

43:41

her, beating her, and attempted to sexually

43:43

assault her. He also had a knife

43:45

which he used to cut her arms and legs during

43:47

the attack, but she was able to

43:49

escape him by jumping from the moving car. She

43:52

survived the jump and the fall down the embankment on

43:54

the side of the highway. Her unborn

43:56

baby also survived the ordeal. She

43:59

was able to go for help. and report the attack to

44:01

police. Thankfully, Marge

44:03

was also able to identify our attacker. Dwayne

44:06

Little was arrested and charged with attempted

44:08

murder. And this is one thing

44:10

that I wanted to touch on, but I wanted to

44:12

wait till we got to this point. You

44:14

know, we kept talking about, you know,

44:17

people saying that Dwayne

44:19

Little was a model inmate

44:22

and maybe he was, but

44:24

maybe that's because, you know,

44:26

there was nothing for him to

44:29

really do in prison. And

44:31

by that, I mean, you know,

44:33

he wouldn't have had the opportunity to

44:37

attack or sexually assault

44:40

any women in prison. And

44:42

so therefore, what was

44:45

he going to do? He could essentially

44:47

be a model prisoner because

44:49

there was no opportunity for

44:52

him to get in trouble the way

44:54

that he could on the outside, at

44:57

least using his

44:59

emma of attacking women.

45:01

But it does seem as though,

45:04

you know, as soon as he

45:06

gets out or not long

45:08

after he gets out, he's

45:10

back at it again. And we see that time

45:12

and time again. And then the

45:14

other thing that I was struck by was,

45:17

and we talked about it just a little bit earlier, right?

45:20

Someone having to make the decision

45:23

whether or not, you know, to

45:25

fight. And in this case, this

45:28

woman had to decide, do

45:30

I jump out of this

45:32

moving vehicle knowing

45:35

that I'm pregnant? And

45:37

that's the decision she made. Thankfully,

45:40

it worked out for her. She

45:42

survived or unborn baby survived

45:45

these descriptions of

45:48

people making the decision to

45:51

fight or, you know, to, to

45:53

jump out of a car. I mean, it gives me

45:56

chills thinking what

45:58

this woman went through. and

46:00

what she ultimately did to

46:02

survive. It was later

46:04

revealed that this attack on Margie

46:06

Hunter may not have been completely

46:09

random. Little may have

46:11

been stalking Margie and waiting

46:13

for a situation like this.

46:15

Just waiting for her to

46:17

be helpless and stranded so

46:19

he could quote unquote rescue

46:21

her. A 1979 Christmas card from

46:25

the company Margie worked at, Metalcraft,

46:27

featured a photo of all of

46:29

the company's employees. Standing

46:31

directly next to Margie was

46:34

Dwayne Little. Investigators believe he'd

46:36

become interested in her at work

46:39

and began learning about

46:41

her, including where she lived

46:44

and would often drive. He

46:46

apparently had no reason to be driving on

46:48

old highway 99, the

46:50

day Margie's car broke down. Dwayne

46:53

Little was found guilty and sentenced to 20

46:55

years for kidnapping, 20 years for

46:57

sexual assault, and another 20 years for

46:59

attempted murder. Each of the sentences

47:02

carried a 10-year minimum. This time, Dwayne

47:04

Little had 30 years minimum before he could hope

47:06

to try and earn parole. At

47:09

sentencing, the judge said sternly to

47:11

Dwayne Little, two victims are enough,

47:13

Mr. Little, and I'm not going to

47:15

chance a third victim. It's not clear

47:17

how many victims Little does actually have. Many

47:20

consider him the killer of the Cowden family,

47:23

which would bring the known total of his victims to

47:25

six, including Margie Hunter, who

47:27

lived. But there could be more. When

47:30

talking about Little to KOBI 5 News,

47:33

Detective Davis said, people's

47:35

lives, other people's lives to

47:37

him, are absolutely of no

47:39

concern. He wants what he wants,

47:42

and if I have to kill her to get it, that's

47:44

the way it is. At one point,

47:47

Davis contacted convicted murderer,

47:49

Russell Obrimsky, who

47:52

was at the Oregon State Pen with

47:54

Little, to see if he had

47:56

heard anything, or if he had any ideas on

47:58

how to make Little talk. walk about

48:00

his crimes. Detective Davis

48:03

said, O'Brimsky was open about other

48:06

things, but when I got to

48:08

Dwayne Little, he says, you're wasting

48:10

your time. Dwayne Little is

48:12

going to say nothing to anybody. Never.

48:15

He doesn't say nothing to nobody. Although

48:18

Detective Davis, who retired in 1992,

48:21

could never officially solve the Cowden

48:23

family murders, he never

48:26

forgot about them telling K-O-B-I-5,

48:29

I am ashamed. I am sorry. The

48:32

Cowden family did not get justice and

48:34

I was a part of their not

48:36

getting justice and it haunts me.

48:39

And I do think that, you know,

48:41

this is pretty rough on

48:44

a lot of investigators, a lot

48:46

of detectives. I mean, Detective

48:48

Davis is saying it here. He

48:50

was ashamed. He was sorry. This

48:52

case haunted him. And

48:55

I think that happens to a lot of

48:57

people where they firmly believe

48:59

in their gut that they

49:02

know who committed a murder,

49:04

a sexual assault, whatever

49:06

it may be, but

49:09

they can never put together enough

49:11

evidence. And, you know,

49:14

ultimately the years go by, they

49:16

retire, but the case never

49:18

leaves them. That has to be

49:21

really tough. And it's sad

49:23

because it's not usually a

49:25

lack of effort or putting in time

49:27

or, you know, trying to build

49:29

a case. It's just that one clue,

49:32

that one smoking gun piece

49:34

of evidence that you need to

49:36

conclusively close a case. It just sometimes

49:38

isn't there no matter how hard you

49:40

look for it. But

49:42

I don't know if you have many

49:44

other professions where, you know, you'd kind

49:47

of have that same thing. Would

49:49

you really be haunted by

49:51

something that, you know, you

49:53

weren't able to do at work? Most

49:56

people would never experience that, but

49:58

I think detectives, investors, and Skaters

50:00

they do it appears that Dwayne

50:02

Lee little is still alive and being held at

50:04

the Oregon State penitentiary He

50:06

will turn 76 this year although

50:09

most people believe he did kill the

50:11

Cowden family as far as we know There's

50:13

no physical evidence connecting him to the

50:15

murders back in the 1970s Police

50:19

couldn't have known about DNA So finding a

50:21

fingerprint that matched or something else that connected

50:23

little to the crime scene would

50:25

have been the best police could do at Perhaps

50:28

a reexamination of the evidence in the case

50:30

may officially close the case and

50:32

Dwayne little or whomever killed the Cowden's can

50:34

be exposed Once and for all the

50:37

murders of the members of the Cowden family

50:39

Richard Melissa Belinda and David

50:41

are still unsolved and please consider

50:44

it an open and active case if

50:46

you have any information in the case You can

50:48

call the Jackson County Sheriff's Office at 541-776-7206 Some

50:55

morph as we wrap this one up, you

50:57

know going back to The

51:00

crime scene or you know

51:02

the crime that unfolded the murders

51:04

of the Cowden family I

51:06

can't help but think how awful

51:08

it must have been in

51:11

their final moment You know, we

51:13

don't have all the details But the

51:16

fact that Richard was tied to a tree

51:18

leads you to believe that He

51:21

most likely had to

51:23

witness Some very awful thing

51:26

Happening to two members of his

51:28

family. Yeah, and then to either be

51:31

killed or left there just to die

51:33

you know either way just a terrible terrible

51:36

death after presumably seeing what he

51:38

had to see and There's

51:40

no way for us to know for sure If

51:43

Dwayne little was the culprit

51:46

in the murders But you would have

51:48

to say that he makes

51:50

for a very compelling Suspect,

51:54

you know given all the things that we talked

51:56

about his proximity

51:59

to the camp site, his

52:01

refusal to take a polygraph test

52:03

and go back to prison. And

52:06

then, you know, his MO

52:09

and his track record, it's

52:11

kind of hard not to think that, you

52:14

know, he may have had something to do with it.

52:16

Yeah. One thing that jumped out to me in this

52:18

case was that whoever is responsible,

52:21

Dwayne Little order, anyone else, why

52:23

they wouldn't take the money and

52:26

the watch, Richard's watch

52:28

was valuable. There was cash. It was a

52:30

pretty good amount. If you're going to go

52:33

through the trouble of murdering this

52:35

family, then why not take

52:37

the cash and the jewelry that's laying right out

52:39

in the open as well. So that

52:41

makes it seem like, you know, something

52:44

other than robbery was the motive here

52:46

and the person wasn't even concerned about

52:49

financially benefiting. Yeah. That

52:51

was my thought, you know,

52:53

for some of these

52:55

individuals, whether it's the

52:58

sexual component to

53:00

a crime or whatever it

53:03

is they're getting out of the

53:06

murders, does it almost

53:09

cause them to not think

53:11

about certain things? Yeah, there's

53:13

some money there. There's a nice watch,

53:16

but that's not what, you know, I'm

53:18

interested in at all. I'm

53:20

here to do X. Now

53:23

X is terrible. We know that, but

53:25

that's a thought that I have. That they're

53:28

so focused on that

53:30

part, the part that they want to

53:32

do, the part that they

53:34

derive, whatever you want to call

53:36

it, satisfaction, you

53:38

know, whatever

53:40

term I use sounds horrible,

53:43

but there is something that these people

53:45

are getting out of committing

53:48

these awful acts and

53:50

then a little, you know, some

53:52

money and a watch to them just doesn't

53:55

really have anything to do with it. Maybe.

53:57

Yeah. I just, I hope there's something left

53:59

behind. the evidence that maybe fresh

54:02

eyes, fresh technology, they can comb

54:04

over that stuff, whatever, they still

54:06

have in evidence and look for

54:08

clues, DNA, things that might point

54:11

to somebody once and for all. Whether it's

54:13

Dwayne Little or anyone else, it

54:15

would be nice to have a

54:17

name after all this time. Even

54:20

if that person's dead or in prison for something

54:22

else, you know, it would be

54:24

good to close the books on this case and know

54:26

who was responsible. Yeah, I think

54:28

that's what we're wanting to see in

54:31

any of these unsolved cases that we

54:33

do. Unfortunately, I think

54:36

in some it's much harder. Now,

54:38

we know they had his blood at one

54:40

time, but was

54:42

it saved? Was it preserved?

54:46

And what did they collect from

54:48

the crime scene? You said it.

54:50

This goes way back before DNA.

54:52

So at the time

54:54

they were collecting things, they certainly

54:57

weren't thinking about the technology

54:59

that we have today and

55:02

what it would be able to do. And

55:04

unfortunately, I do think that's a

55:06

large part of these much older

55:09

cases. They didn't have the

55:11

knowledge of what was to come. So

55:13

I think sometimes the

55:16

collection techniques may have

55:18

been lacking or obviously they

55:20

weren't the same as

55:23

they would be today. And the

55:25

things that they would collect and keep. You

55:28

think about not being able

55:30

to do anything with a

55:32

piece of evidence. So was

55:34

it even kept? Because it

55:37

may have had no value whatsoever at

55:39

the time. Now today it could be

55:41

a goldmine of information, but

55:43

back then it could have

55:45

essentially meant nothing. And then

55:47

it comes down to even if it's kept

55:49

was properly stored or did it

55:52

degrade over time and it couldn't

55:54

even be used today to look for evidence.

55:56

Yeah, so a lot of hurdles in

55:58

some of these older cases. cases for sure

56:01

and that's why they go so long

56:03

without being solved. But I

56:06

agree with you just to get a

56:08

name to get, you know, some

56:10

finality in some of these

56:12

cases and we are getting

56:14

them in a lot of cases.

56:16

It's amazing. But that's it

56:18

for our episode on the Calvin

56:21

family murders. If you love

56:23

the show, but haven't done so yet, take

56:25

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56:49

Podcast, discussion and fans. So

56:52

that's it for another episode of Criminology, but

56:54

Morph and I will be back with all

56:56

of you. It's Saturday night with

56:58

a brand new episode. So until then for

57:00

Mike and Morph, we'll talk

57:02

to you next week. Take care everyone.