Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer (9 page)

Realizing his mistake, Rogers instantly
retracted and explained that he really hadn't gone to the Safeway
store to get coffee, but had only started to go. As he was getting
ready to leave, he had heard the telephone ring. Since he had
already started the truck, he let the engine run while he went back
inside to answer the phone. The phone call, he said, had been from
his wife, informing him that investigators from the sheriff's
office were on their way to talk to him. He seemed to have an
answer for everything.

"How long did you let the engine run?"

"Just a few minutes."

"The valve cover was still hot, not just
warm," responded Turner. "Your story just doesn't make sense."

"What do you want?" Dayton angrily rebutted.
"I haven't left here all night."

"Mr. Rogers," said Turner deliberately, "the
incident that we're investigating is a murder, and we believe that
it was your vehicle seen leaving the scene of this murder." Turner
was trying to rattle him now, shake his story loose. But Dayton
remained steadfast.

"I haven't been anywhere. I've been here all
night." Dayton saw Turner eyeing his right hand. Okay, reasoned
Turner, they could play it Dayton's way, for the time being.

"What happened to your hand?" asked the
detective. "Cut yourself ?"

"I cut it with a hacksaw," he stated
matter-of-factly.

"Are you right-handed or left-handed?"

"Left-handed."

"Where were you when you cut it?"

Dayton pointed to a hacksaw lying on a
toolbox next to the workbench where he had originally been standing
when Turner first saw him while looking through the glass portion
of the overhead door. Turner seized the hacksaw, but detected no
blood anywhere on it.

"Mind if I take the hacksaw into custody?
I'll give you a receipt for it."

"No, I don't care."

Turner changed the subject by asking Dayton
where he had been drinking. Dayton replied that he had bought some
wine at a nearby Safeway supermarket and mixed it together to make
a concoction, the name of which he couldn't recall. He said he
purchased the wine around 11 P.M. and drank it at his shop.

Hadn't he said earlier that he had been
mixing
bourbon
with strawberry mixer? Now he was talking
about drinking wine. Turner continued to make mental notes of the
inconsistencies in Dayton's statements. He must have been getting
tired, his mind fatigued from all his activities of the past few
hours. Turner pressed on with his probing, aware that it was harder
for a suspect to keep his story straight when tired and under
tremendous pressure of continued questioning.

"Where did you put all the empty bottles?"
asked Turner.

"I bought miniatures at the liquor store," he
replied, trying to avoid the question. Another inconsistency.
Miniature bottles of wine? Or miniature bottles of liquor? As far
as Turner knew, the only miniature bottles containing alcoholic
beverages sold at state-run liquor outlets were the one-shot hard
liquor types, like those served on airlines. He decided not to
press that issue just yet. Besides, regulated by state law, liquor
stores close at 7 P.M. in Oregon and were not open at 11 P.M. That
was inconsistent enough for him. It was clear that Dayton was
lying.

Turner remained silent. Dayton, however,
continued to talk, saying that he liked to drink but that his wife
didn't approve of it. On the evenings he chose to drink, he said,
he did so at his shop.

"Where are the bottles, Dayton?" Turner
abruptly asked again. Dayton didn't respond, however. He only
stared at the detective.

"Do you mind if I look in the trash cans?"
Turner prompted.

"No. Go ahead. Search the place if you want
to. Search my truck. You want me to go with you? Say so."

Having obtained Dayton's permission, Turner
checked each of the trash cans inside the shop. All except for the
one in the sink area were completely empty, devoid of any material
whatsoever. But the trash can in the sink area contained several
wrappers from Curad brand adhesive bandages. Turner guessed that
the wrappers were from the bandages on Dayton's right hand. On his
way back to where Dayton was standing, Turner noticed a blood smear
on the bathroom door directly above the doorknob. He kept the
observation to himself.

"You say you cut yourself with a hacksaw,"
said Turner, his eyes now boring right through his suspect. "But I
can't find any blood on the toolbox, the hacksaw, the vise, or
anywhere on the floor where you say you were standing when you cut
yourself. Where did you say you were standing when you cut your
hand?"

"You're there."

"You know, I couldn't find any of those
liquor bottles, either. Where did you say you put them?"

Dayton didn't answer now. He only stared at
Turner with eyes that had now become angry.

"Your explanations just aren't making any
sense."

Dayton, his eyes glaring more than ever, once
again stated in monotones: "Search the place. Search my truck. You
want me to go with you? Say so."

Turner told Dayton that it wasn't necessary
yet. He then explained that a witness was on his way to Woodburn to
look at the truck. He said the witness had observed Dayton's blue
Datsun fleeing the scene of the crime.

"Well, then, I want to talk to an
attorney."

At 5:42 A.M. Turner, not wanting to face any
legal technicalities later, advised Dayton Leroy Rogers of his
rights under Miranda.

"Do you understand these rights?"

"Yeah. I've been through the system before."
Dayton asked Turner if he wanted him to furnish fingerprints.

"I would appreciate it."

"Am I under arrest?"

"No. Not at this time." Turner informed him
that after the witness had viewed his truck, they would take him to
the sheriff's office to get a photo of him as well as his
fingerprints. Since Dayton had indicated that he was invoking his
rights, Turner didn't ask him any further questions.

Dayton, however, asked the detective if he
could set up business for the day. When Turner told him that he had
no objections, Dayton turned and walked into his office. Turner
stayed close by and watched as Dayton opened the top drawer of a
filing cabinet. He reached inside with his
right
hand, the
one that had been injured, and pulled out a money bag. He then left
the office and went to the cash register behind the counter. Moving
from left to right, he very methodically placed currency and change
into the cash drawer, again using his right hand.

Left-handed my ass, Turner thought to
himself.

"Do you mind if I call my wife?" Dayton asked
Turner as he closed the cash drawer.

"I don't care who you call." Turner listened
as Dayton spoke on the telephone, supposedly with his wife,
discussing business matters and making arrangements for someone to
open the shop. At 6:10 A.M. he placed another call and talked
uninterrupted for the better part of the next hour.

At 6:45 A.M., while Dayton was still on the
phone, Deputy Peter Tutmark arrived from the crime scene with
witness Richard Bergio. Following close behind, representing
Clackamas County District Attorney James O'Leary, were Deputy
District Attorney Andrejs "Andy" Eglitis and Investigator Tom
Kusturin. Tutmark and Turner led Bergio to Dayton's pickup and
simultaneously briefed Eglitis and Kusturin on what was so far
known about the case.

"Is this the vehicle you followed out of the
Denny's parking lot earlier this morning?" asked Turner.

"That's the one," Bergio said without
hesitation. "If you want to be sure, turn on the headlights. It
doesn't have any license plate lights."

Turner went to the truck and reached inside.
He pulled the headlights switch into the on position. Sure enough,
when he walked to the rear of the pickup, he saw that there was no
illumination at all coming from the license plate light
fixtures.

"Do you have any doubt whatsoever about this
being the vehicle you followed earlier?" asked Turner.

"No. That's the one."

In preparation to having Dayton's pickup
towed to a place for safekeeping, Turner opened the passenger door
to check for items of value, having already obtained Dayton's
consent to do so, and to make an inventory of any items found. He
noticed at that time a cut in the passenger door panel, and blood
on the back edge of the passenger door. But whose blood was it?

Turner reentered the workshop and motioned to
Dayton, who was still talking on the telephone, and indicated that
he wanted to talk to him. After putting the person on the other end
of the line on hold, Dayton walked over to where Turner was
standing, near the front entrance. Turner promptly confronted him
with the fact that his pickup truck had been positively identified
as the one that left the scene of the murder. There was no longer
any doubt, he told him.

"I've got nothing to say," Dayton
responded.

After conferring briefly with Lieutenant
Detloff, Turner faced Dayton and in an official tone announced that
he was under arrest for the murder of the nude victim, called "Jane
Doe" for lack of her identification. Turner permitted Dayton to
finish his phone call, then fastened a pair of handcuffs around
Dayton's wrists, again advising him of his Miranda rights. Dayton
Leroy Rogers was then promptly transported and booked into the
Clackamas County Jail in Oregon City.

Later that morning when Turner checked in at
his office, crime analyst Deputy Dave Broom-field, the department's
computer-buff-turned-expert, handed Turner a computer printout. As
Turner quickly scanned the multi-sheet document, he saw that Dayton
Leroy Rogers was no stranger to law enforcement in the state of
Oregon. He had been in trouble several times and had faced some
very serious charges that had involved violent sexual attacks and a
nearly fatal stabbing.

Although his rap sheet was extensive, it
didn't include the kind of detail that Turner knew he would need in
building a strong case against Dayton. Due to his suspect's lengthy
criminal record, Turner also knew that a wealth of background
information must exist within the files of various city, county,
and state agencies. He would have to contact a number of agencies
to get the information he needed, and that would take time.

Chapter 4

Shortly after 8 A.M., Detective Mark White
was advised to report to the jail to provide assistance to
Detective Turner. He brought along his 35mm camera, since it would
be his job to obtain additional photographs of an evidentiary
nature. After Dayton was properly booked, Turner turned over to
White a pair of blue work coveralls, Golden Retriever brand brown
work boots, a brown belt, a white T-shirt a pair of blue Levi's
pants, one pair of black socks, one pair of men's blue underpants,
and a key ring that held the Nissan's keys and several others,
presumably keys to Dayton's shop and home. The key ring also held a
long, black swivel hook made of plastic. All of the items had been
seized from Dayton at the jail at the time of his booking and had
been bagged separately.

Dayton, now dressed in jail blues, was
brought into the jail infirmary. As Detective White prepared his
camera for photographs, he observed the bandages on Dayton's right
hand. Dayton, waiting patiently for everyone to finish their jobs,
appeared sullen and quiet. Clackamas County Jail Head Nurse Phyllis
Flowers, a tough-talking, abrasive woman that the other jail nurses
feared and respected, recommended that Dayton's bandages be removed
to determine if his wounds required sutures. Dayton wasn't about to
argue with her. He carefully removed the bandages, which he placed
inside an otherwise empty garbage can.

There appeared to be two cuts, noted White
and Nurse Flowers, one between the small finger and another on the
palm, near the finger next to the small one. The cut on the palm
ran at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees to the
lengthwise line of the finger and extended upward about a quarter
to a half inch. The other cut ran lengthwise along the inside of
the small finger. Both cuts appeared straight, not jagged. The cut
on the palm seemed to be closed, while the one nearest the small
finger looked quite deep and was, in fact, still open.

Dayton, White noticed, also had an abrasion
or scratch on the underside of his right elbow, and a scratch on
the outside of his left forearm. He took photographs of all of
Dayton's injuries, then seized the bandages containing dried blood
from the trash can. Afterward, Nurse Flowers recommended that
Dayton be taken to Willamette Falls Hospital for examination of his
hand wounds.

Deputies John Mills and John Naab transported
Dayton, accompanied by Detective White, to the hospital's emergency
room. Upon their arrival, Mills began taking detailed notes of
everything Dayton said to the hospital staff during the intake
process.

"Where did you cut it?" asked an admitting
attendant.

"At my shop," responded Dayton.

"What cut it?"

"Metal."

After being properly admitted, Dayton was
taken into the emergency room where a technician asked him
additional questions.

"When did this happen?"

"Yesterday."

"What time?"

"Ten-thirty."

"At night?"

"Yeah."

The room was silent as the technician
examined the wounds.

"When did you say this happened?"

"Last night, I imagine about one to three
o'clock in the morning. I worked all night." Mills caught the time
discrepancy and noted it for his report.

"Are you taking any medications?"

"No."

A few minutes later, Dr. Ann Brown came into
the emergency room examining room and began treating Dayton's
wounds. As she cleaned the injuries and applied medication, she
asked him some additional questions.