Unconfirmed Victims: Information from the King County Archives.
Vicki Lynn Hollar
Missing/Murdered Oregon Women, 1969 to 1979.
I’ve been compiling a list of missing and murdered young women from the 1970’s in Oregon in a notebook, and I figured why not also include it here. As I learn of new victims I will update the list… over the years I’ve found dozens of names on various websites and newspaper articles about other missing and murdered women, but they’re scattered all over the internet in a million different sources… why not put them all here?
Janet Lynn Karin-Shanahan: (April 23, 1969, Eugene). Twenty-two years old. Strangled and found in the trunk of her own car.
Niki Diane Britten: (July 16, 1969, Albany). Fifteen years old. Frequent run away.
Barbara Katherine Cunningham: (May 25, 1971, Eugene). Thirty-four years old. Found deceased in her apartment by her mother.
Barbara Ann Bryson: (July 29, 1971, Stayton). Nineteen years old. Was last known to be attending a party.
Fay Ellen Robinson: (March 12, 1972, Eugene). Found deceased in apartment.
Alma Jean Barra: (March 23, 1972, Happy Valley). Twenty-eight years old. Found deceased in Willamette National Cemetery.
Beverly May Jenkins: (May 25, 1972, Cottage Grove). Sixteen years old. Her remains were found in June 1972 just off the I-5 roughly ten miles outside of Cottage Grove; she had been strangled to death.
Jane Pellett: (June 7, 1972, Salem). Twenty-eight years old. Found deceased on a busy roadside on June 26, 1972.
Geneva Joy Martin: (June 16, 1972, Eugene). Nineteen years old. Found deceased on the side of the road by a farmer.
Rita Lorraine Jolly: (June 29, 1973, West Linn). Seventeen years old. Disappeared while out on a routine nightly walk.
Allison Lynn Caufman: (July 1973, Portland). Fifteen years old. Died as a result of head injuries after being shoved from a car moving at a high rate of speed.
Laurie Lee Canaday: (July 9, 1973, Milwaukee). Her remains were recovered on the pavement at the intersection of Southeast Scott Street and McLoughlin Blvd in Milwaukee, OR.
Susan Ann Wickersham: (July 11, 1973, Bend). Seventeen years old. Was found deceased from a gunshot wound on January 20, 1976.
Vicki Lynn Hollar: (August 20, 1973, Eugene). Disappeared along with her 1965 VW black VW Beetle with IL plates and the running boards removed.
Gayle LeClair: (August 23, 1973, Eugene). Found stabbed in her apartment.
Deborah Lee Tomlinson: (October 15, 1973, Creswell/Eugene). Disappeared along with a friend on her sixteenth birthday. According to her sister (and my friend) Jean she was seen in California after she disappeared).
Virginia Erickson: (October 21, 1973, Portland). Thirty-two years old, mother of six. Disappeared, most likely killed by her husband.
Suzanne Rae Seay-Justis: (November 5, 1973, Portland). From Eugene, despite having a car hitchhiked.
Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter: (October 1974, Tigard). According to McWhorter’s sister, she had been traveling before she disappeared around the Western part of the US. Her body was finally identified in September 2025, but the case remains unsolved.
Becky Rae Martin: (February 15, 1975, Junction City). Twenty-two. Throat cut.
Leslie Michelle (seven years old) and Geoffrey Lyman (five years old) Brown. Murders took place on February 22, 1975 and both victims were found on March 12, 1975 in McIver Park, Estacada.
Margo Nerline Ascencio-Castro: (March 1, 1975, Eugene). Twenty-two years old. Found stabbed in a motel room, possibly involved with a local motorcycle gang.
Shirley Anita Wallace: (July 21, 1975, Eugene). Thirty-one years old. Found, shot.
Tina Marie Mingus: (October 1975, Salem). Sixteen-years old. Murdered, body recovered.
Cherril Sue Miller: (October 12, 1975, Portland). Twenty-eight years old.
Camille Karen Covert-Foss: (October 17, 1975, Hillsboro). Found shot in her vehicle at her POE, in a Southwest Portland-area shopping center.
Kim Charleson: (January 7, 1976, Cannon Beach). The 22 year old had been in college and may have been carrying a small amount of Canadian currency when she disappeared.
Cindy Irene King: (July 19, 1977, Grants Pass). Fifteen years old. Disappeared.
Margie Ann Fernette: (January 24, 1978). Found in Fairfield Elementary School.
Benita Gay Chamberlin: (February 23, 1978, Eugene). Twenty-four years old.
Floy Joy/Jean Bennett: (February 23, 1978, Beaverton). Thirty-seven years old.
Karen Etta Whiteside: (March 22, 1978). Sixteen years old.
Diana Marie Kuhn*: (December 10, 1978, Portland). Twenty years old. Remains found in in West Linn, OR.
Christie Lynn Farni: (December 14, 1978, Medford). Six years old.
Irin Marie Meyer: (July 20, 1979, Brookings). Twenty-nine years old.
Sheryl Wright: (no additional information at this time).
* Thank you for Diana’s cousin Donna Mollema for informing me about her.
Suzanne “Sue” Rae Seay-Justis.
Suzanne “Sue” Rae Justis was born to John and Doris (Smeed) Seay on January 5, 1950 in Vancouver, Washington. The couple were wed on December 25, 1954 and eventually relocated to Eugene, Oregon; they had three daughters (Suzanne, Chris, and Joan) and a son (Gary). Sue attended North Eugene High School and about halfway through her senior year on February 3, 1968 she married Mike Justis (who I’m deducing was her high school sweetheart as they went to school together and were so young); the couple had a son together however they divorced in November 1971. Sue was 5’3,” weighed 110 pounds and had blue eyes; she also had a mole on the left side of her face underneath her bottom lip. Like so many of the other unconfirmed victims I write about, there isn’t a lot of information out there on her (the majority of the pictures I found were from high school).
At the time she disappeared in 1973 Justis was 23 years old and wore her brown hair long and parted down the middle. Most of what we know about the last hours of Suzanne Justis’ life is because of a conversation she had with her mother: at some point on November 5, 1973 Mrs. Seay spoke with her daughter on the phone. Sue told her that she was in the general area of what was (at the time) The Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR and was planning on returning home the next day so she could pick her son up from school (which makes me think she didn’t have to be back until around 2 or 3 PM). Mrs. Seay (who for obvious reasons was concerned about her daughter) got her a hotel room although there are no details about what one she set it up with. Despite owning a car Suzanne was known to hitchhike frequently: according to one article, law enforcement found her vehicle in her hometown of Eugene so it’s believed that she got to Portland through ulterior means (most likely hitchhiking). Sue never used the room her Mom got for her and she never returned home, making law enforcement speculate that she tried to thumb a ride home and most likely was abducted by the individual that picked her up. As we all know, Bundy often targeted hitchhikers and would quickly subdue then incapacitate them once they were securely in his vehicle. For reasons that have never been made known, a missing persons report was never filed for Justis until 1989.
One frequent route Bundy liked to take when hunting for prey was the I-5, which is the main north-to-south Interstate Highway located on the West Coast of the US. It extends throughout California, Oregon, and goes right through Seattle, WA (where Bundy was living at the time Justis disappeared in 1973). The Memorial Coliseum is located right off the I-5, which is where Sue told her Mom she was close to on the night they last spoke. Additionally, when Vicki Lynn Hollar was abducted from the nearby college town of Eugene (the University of Oregon is located there as well, which is where Kathy Parks was abducted form) she was taken right off the I-5 as well.n As we all know, Bundy’s ‘official’ reign of terror began on January 4, 1974 when he brutally assaulted and left Karen Sparks for dead in Seattle. According to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ when Justis vanished on November 5, 1973 he purchased gas in Seattle. At the time Ted was in between jobs: in September 1973 he was briefly employed as the Assistant to the Washington State Republican Chairman and he remained unemployed until May 3, 1974, when he got a job at the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia (he was there until August 28, 1974). In September 1973 he started law school at the University of Puget Sound but quickly grew disenchanted with the schools ‘lack of prestige’ and stopped attending classes. At the time he was still in a fairly committed relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer, his longtime girlfriend in Seattle.
Is it really that far-fetched that Bundy would have gone out driving around aimlessly on a random Monday night, maybe after studying or seeing Liz? The trip would have been roughly three hours and nineteen minutes away (one way) from the Rogers Rooming House where he was living at the time. Did he just happen to drive past the Memorial Coliseum and stumble across Justis, thumbing a ride around Portland? We know he abducted Kathy Parks while living at the same place and she was roughly the same distance away (even though she was found in Washington state’s Taylor Mountain). I know the TB Investigative Report places him in Seattle (it doesn’t specify at what time), but the round trip would have been an easy one for Ted. I don’t know, if I can be honest, I don’t think he killed a lot of the girls I write about (maybe 70% of them)… but, I’m leaning towards him killing Suzanne Justis. I personally think that all these girls are going to be found in a dump site together: Rita Jolly. Vicki Hollar. Suzanne Justis. I speculate that when they find one, they’ll find them all. ‘Steve the Amateur Historian’ points out in his YouTube video about Justis that the week she disappeared Ted wasn’t going to class: he attended on Friday, November 2, 1973 then there’s a break until the following Friday, November 9. What was he doing in this time? Skipping class because he was hunting for a victim (who happened to be Suzanne)? I was able to track down his school schedule and on Monday nights he had night class from 6:15-10:45 PM (with a few ten-minute breaks in between). I would think if this happened more recently, I could search for the school’s Academic Calendar and check if maybe there was a weird mid-semester break for those dates, but considering the University of Puget Sounds Law School doesn’t even exist anymore I’m not wasting my time.
As far as I know, Bundy never discussed Justis in any capacity. When being questioned by Dr. Bob Keppel about the murder of WSU student Joyce LePage, the following exchange occurred between the two men:
Ted Bundy: ‘Yeah, I can tell you– I can tell you — yeah, we can do it that way if you’d like, too. And maybe in some ways that’s easier. I can tell you what, that’s, you know, what I’m not involved in. You know; if you have a list of that type in your head.’
Robert Keppel: ‘There’s a gal in 1971, Thurston County.’
TB: ‘No.’
RK: ‘Not that far back. Nothing that far back?’
TB: ‘1972.’
(…)
In this interview Bundy claims he started killing in 1972, meaning it isn’t that much of a reach that he would have abducted more girls from Oregon than he admitted to. Before he was executed Ted admitted to killing three women there in that state (including Parks). Who knows if he was being truthful with this number, but most Bundy scholars feel Rita Jolly and Vicki Hollar were these victims… but at this point we’ll probably never know. Ted was often under the influence while he was committing his atrocities (whether it was booze, weed, or a combination of the two)…. what’s to say there weren’t additional girls he either lied about killing or straight up didn’t remember?
Another possible suspect that was investigated but eventually ruled out was Warren Leslie Forrest, a serial killer who operated mostly in the Washington state area from 1972 to 1974. Forrest was 5’9,” 155 pounds, had light brown shoulder length hair, blue eyes, and a bushy mustache. He was employed with the Clark County Parks and Recreation Department in Washington from January 1, 1971 to October 2, 1974, when he was arrested; he could have anywhere from one to six victims. At the time of his arrest Warren was 25 years old and living with his wife and two kids on 18th Avenue in Battleground, WA. I’m not sure if he is a candidate for Suzanne Justis’ murder as he seemed to gravitate towards younger, more adolescent girls (in their mid to late teenage years). There was an obvious difference between a teenage girl and 23 year old Justis (in my opinion). Also, he seemed to ‘hunt’ more around the Vancouver area, as his only confirmed victim from Portland was Martha Morrison.
Around the same time in 1973 multiple other girls went missing from the same general area in Oregon: Fifteen year old Alison Lynn Caufman was found strangled to death in June 1973. Rita Jolly disappeared from West Linn while out on a nightly walk on June 29, 1973 and Susan Wickersham was abducted while waiting for a ride home from friends in Bend, OR on July 11, 1973. Her body was found on January 20, 1976 with a gunshot wound in the head (it’s strongly speculated Bundy didn’t have anything to do with her death as it didn’t fit his MO). Vicki Lynn Hollar disappeared after leaving her new job as a seamstress at Bon Marche in Eugene on August 20, 1973 (her black 1965 VW Beetle has also never been recovered). In 1973 Laurie Lee Canady died from massive head injuries after being shoved out of a moving vehicle at a high rate of speed in Portland (I wasn’t able to find ANYTHING else about her).
I don’t mean to immediately jump to Bundy (or any other serial killer) when I hear about any woman in the Pacific Northwest that was abducted and/or murdered in the early to mid-1970’s, but I guess I just can’t help myself. Who knows, maybe Justis met her demise at the hands of a random killer who only targeted her. Look at the recently solved case of Rita Curran, who was brutally butchered by William DeRoos. Whenever I hear about deaths like this in the 1970’s my mind automatically jumps to Bundy, but what if it was just some random nut?
If Suzanne were alive in May 2023 she would be 73 years old. Because she had a son to care for I highly doubt she would just up and leave on her own (especially since she spoke with her mother the night she vanished and mentioned her intentions of coming home the next day). Mr. Seay passed on January 11, 1994 and Suzanne’s mom Doris died at the age of 82 on March 12, 2012.
Vicki Lynn Hollar.
Vicki Lynn Hollar was born on March 8, 1949 to Benjamin and Aida (nee Presta) Hollar in Flossmoor, Illinois; the couple also had a son named Kenneth. Sadly Aida gave birth to a son they named Benny Gene on November 11, 1959 but he only lived for four days. An attractive, small framed girl, Ms. Hollar stood 5’1” tall, had brown hair and eyes and weighed a mere 115 pounds. She moved to Eugene from Illinois in June 1972 after graduating from Southern Illinois University and moved into an apartment with five roommates. She was employed as a seamstress at Bon Marche located at 175 West Broadway (now Macy’s) and had only worked there for two weeks. Friends and coworkers told law enforcement that Vicki was happy and was looking forward to being scheduled for full-time hours the following work week.
On Monday, August 20, 1973 twenty-four-year-old Vicki disappeared without a trace: she was last seen getting into her black 1965 Volkswagen Bug close to 8th Avenue and Washington Street in Eugene; her Beetle had Illinois plates (numbered GR7738) and its running boards were removed. After work at around 5:00 PM she walked with her supervisor to their cars parked in a vacant service station at 8th Avenue and Washington; she was wearing a pink dress. The coworker said that she ‘hadn’t seen anyone else in the area that night.’ That was the last time anyone saw Vicki: law enforcement said that ‘it’s like both she and the car were swallowed up.‘
It’s strongly theorized that after her workday Vicki was on her way to her apartment about 1.7 miles away located in the 6600 block of West 27th Avenue. She was supposed to meet a friend at her place around 8:00 PM and from there the pair were going to go to a party somewhere in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Vicki never made it home or to the gathering, and sadly was seen or heard from again. The friend she was supposed to meet up with hung around for a little bit then when she never showed up, left a note for Vicki and went to the party by herself. The next day however, when she still didn’t hear from Ms. Hollar the friend became even more concerned, and because Vicki was a bit older than the other missing girls vanishing around the region law enforcement immediately took her disappearance seriously: she was establishing roots in Eugene and didn’t seem to have any reason to just up and leave.
After Vicki disappeared, her parents came from Illinois to talk to law enforcement and get a feel for the investigation. They told police that all of their daughter’s clothes and personal belongings were left behind at her apartment. Additionally, she never picked up her last paycheck from Bon Marche and her purse and car have never been found to this day. Eugene Police followed every single lead they received for four full months after Vicki’s disappearance but came up with nothing.
Vicki’s family stated she was incredibly content with where she was in her life and was happy with the direction it was heading: she loved her new job, had a lot of friends and didn’t seem to have any reason to just up and leave. Like so many others in the 1970’s, she did have a habit of picking up hitchhikers on occasion. Described as ‘outgoing and friendly,’ the young woman was said to ‘have a mission in life to help the downtrodden,’ and an officer that worked the case said that loved ones described Vicki as a kind-hearted person who felt that ‘if a guy was down and out, it was her job to go out of her way to be friends with him. Obviously, it’s in the back of our minds that she did befriend the wrong person. On December 14, 1973 a story that ran in the Register-Guard said ‘unfortunately, Vicki’s humanitarian impulses, including a tendency to stop for every hitchhiker, may have lead to her disappearance but that so far the investigation had run into a brick wall.‘
I already briefly touched on Vicki’s case when I wrote about another young girl that Bundy suspected of murdering from Oregon, Rita Jolly. Seventeen-year-old Ms. Jolly also disappeared without a trace from West Linn on June 29, 1973. At the time of Vicki’s disappearance in August 1973, Bundy seemed to be in between jobs: from February to April of that year he worked for King County Program Planning then took a break from employment until September 1973, when he was the Assistant to the Washington State Republican chairman. At this time he was still in a relationship with Liz Kloepfer and he was also enrolled in law school at the University of Puget Sound. According to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ Ted was having the clutch repaired on his VW Bug in Seattle, although it’s argued he was ‘borrowing’ a car from someone (see Websleuths screen grabs below for clarification).
In his final death row interview with Bob Keppel, Bundy confessed to starting his murder spree in 1972, years before his official reign of terror started in 1974:
RK: There’s a gal in 1971, Thurston County.
TB: No.
RK: Not that far back. Nothing that far back?
TB: 1972.
I’ve been finding most of Bundy’s ‘unconfirmed victims‘ have very weak commonalities without a lot of substance… Vicki did look like one of Teds victims: she was beautiful and slim, with brown hair and dark features. Her abduction was most likely a crime of opportunity, like so many of the others. Additionally, she fit neatly into his age range, as he killed young females anywhere from 12 years old (possibly even as young as eight if you throw Ann Marie Burr into the mix) up to 26 years old (ski instructor Julie Cunningham). But that’s about it. Bundy confessed to two homicides in Oregon but never gave any information that would identify the victims. It’s highly considered that Hollar is one of those two girls. Ted confessed to abducting Roberta Kathleen Parks from Oregon State University on May 6, 1974; he claimed to have raped and killed her at Taylor Mountain, over 250 miles away from the school and about 25 miles southeast of Seattle. Because she was found in Washington, she is not included in his Oregon victim count. In interviews with law enforcement, Ted confessed to killing two additional women in Oregon but refused to elaborate on their details; Vicki Hollar and Rita Jolly are the best candidates according to most law enforcement. Oregon detectives tried but were unable to question Ted regarding Vicki’s disappearance before his execution in 1989, eliminating the chance of closing the case in relation to Bundy. I was not able to find anything from any of Ms. Hollar’s family in regards to Bundy as her killer, however I did find a quote by Jill Jolly that was of importance: ‘as I recall, my mother told me that the local detectives managed to get a direct question about Rita through to him before his execution, and his reply was ‘No. No more in Oregon.’ Bundy withheld many secrets hoping to parlay the untold stories into yet another stay of execution. ‘There are other buried remains in Colorado’ he said, refusing to elaborate any further. Dubbed Ted’s ‘bones-for-time scheme,’ this only frustrated detectives even more.
At this point in my writing I don’t need to point out that this attractive young woman fits the physical description of Teds other victims and he was known to have been in the general region at the time of her disappearance. At first I thought 24 was a little too old to make her one of Teds victims (as I previously stated, Julie Cunningham was 26 when she was killed)… then I remember this one time when I went back to school for my counseling degree (what a total waste of time that was): all the kids I was taking classes with were all in their very early 20’s and in between classes one day we were all sitting around talking and when I told them I was 30 they all seemed genuinely surprised that I wasn’t ‘their age’ (their words, not mine I swear). I mean, maybe they were being kind but I’ve been told my entire life I look younger than I am. Maybe not SUPER young but maybe Vicki looked younger than she was. Or maybe I’m overthinking this and 24 was a fine age for Bundy. Just my thoughts.
An interesting piece of this puzzle is Vicki’s little black bug has never been found. Now, obviously this means it’s most likely been stashed somewhere out of view (or broken down and sold for parts)… like, in a deserted barn, storage unit, or even a large body of water…My first instinct is a body of water. Websleuths user ‘Klimster’ points out that: ‘There are a LOT of bodies of water around Eugene. There’s the Willamette and McKenzie rivers and Fern Ridge, as you’ve mentioned. However, Fern Ridge has been emptied out at least one time that I know of in the ten years I’ve lived around here. There’s also a lot of lakes nearby and it doesn’t take long to get to the ocean either. The Willamette River is quite large. There are many areas where a car could have gone in unnoticed, IMO.’ According to Eugene Police Sergeant Ed Lowrey: ‘we are afraid she was abducted and murdered.’ … ‘its possible her abductor drove the car into a reservoir or off a mountain logging road. It’s also possible that Georgia police will stop a Volkswagen tomorrow for a traffic violation and we’ll have the car.’
An interesting factoid I figured out from mapping out lots of potential routes along Washington/Oregon/Utah/Idaho is that Vickie Hollar and Rita Jolly were both last seen in close vicinity of major roadways. Bundy loved to drive around late at night, just roaming the Pacific Northwest looking for prey… that makes me think that if Ted was going to destinations south of Seattle he would just hop on the I-5 (which goes right through Eugene), or possibly go down I-205 in the Portland area. The city of Eugene has four colleges in it (New Hope Christian College, Bushnell U, University of Oregon, and Lane CC) and is home to the school Roberta Parks attended (University of Oregon). It’s well known that Bundy loved to prowl areas around college campus’s, and where better to go than a medium-sized college town with four schools?
Looking through different true crime forums I was able to find some stories about Vicki from people that knew her: Websleuths user ‘Fal’ commented that: ‘Vicki was my grandmother’s goddaughter. My grandma tells a story of how when Vicki was coming from Illinois on her way to Oregon, she stopped in Denver to see her. My grandma told her that she should stay in Denver with her, because it was a nice place to live. Vicki said no, and that she had a job lined up for her in Oregon that she was excited to start (I’m assuming it was the seamstress job, which actually runs in my Gma’s family). That was the last time my grandma heard from her. Additionally, from the same forum user ‘Cait6’ commented that: Vicki stood up in my parents wedding just prior to leaving Illinois. She was good friends with my parents in college at SIU and at one point slept on their couch as college kids do when they are in between living situations. They had a tight knit group of friends and my dad told me stories of them all taking her beetle off roading down in Carbondale. One day off roading they accidentally knocked off one of the running boards on one side. When they got back to even it out, my dad and friends helped take off the other one which has always been a unique detail in her vehicle that remains missing. I wish I could provide you more information than that. My parents too have always wanted to know what happened to Vicki as they are now both close to their 70’s. I hope one day more information comes to light for you and her family.’
Another young woman was murdered from Eugene, OR just three days after Vicki disappeared: Gayle LeClair was just 22 years old when she was stabbed to death in her rented home. The young women who dreamed of one day becoming a teacher moved to Eugene in January 1972 and was found brutally killed in her apartment on Sylvan Street. I couldn’t find much on this case, but much like Vicki Hollar she seemed happy and very well liked by the people around her. Webslueths user ‘CherryValley’ commented that: ‘I knew Gayle in gold Beach in the 60’s. I have always wondered if they ever caught her murderer. Her murder was a shocking event in our circle of young friends. I wish someday soon this will be solved.’
What happened to Vicki in the 1.7 miles from where her car was parked to her apartment? Did she pick up a hitchhiker who took her hostage and killed her? Did she decide to leave it all behind and start a new life somewhere? As of February 2023, Vicki Hollar is still classified as missing. She would be 73 years old. Benny Hollar passed away in December 1991 and as of September 2023 Aida Hollar is still alive.
I’ll end this with a poem about Vicki from Aimée Bakers piece, ‘The Saints of the Last Days’ called ‘Patron Saint of Seamstresses:’
‘Pray that she is the kind of woman who knows
how to pull a thread through, stitch
a hem closed with straight lines, and cut
an end loose without shifting, so you can offer
your own thimbleful of blood
to place at the feet of our maternal
heroine, the only one who will know
if the dark man watches her as he does her blood
sisters. Know that you offer for her a relic,
a way to carry her through the passageway
to the dusky vein of a car lot. Pray
that her pink-blushed dress stays neat
and clean. That the latch on her car door
always bolts tight against wanderers. That the ivory dawn
awakens her every morning until she is a grandmother.
And know that your prayers will not be enough
for her to overstep this moment, so that she can darn
this evening closed with her sleep.’
Edit: As of March 2023 I found some interesting new information from a ‘Websleuths’ user trying to solve Vicki’s case. It would be wonderful if they were successful.
Another Bundy Blog. 