The Cowden Family Murders: An Entire Family Vanishes While CampingBeforeThey Are Found Murdered
Mar 1, 2019 0:24:33 GMT
Post by hi224 on Mar 1, 2019 0:24:33 GMT
On August 30, 1974, 28-year old Richard Cowden, his 22-year old wife Belinda, and their two children, five-year old David and five-month old Melissa, left their home in White City, Oregon to go on a Labor Day weekend camping trip near Carberry Creek. At 9:00 AM on September 1, Richard and David and the family’s pet Basset Hound, Droopy, visited a general store in the town of Copper to purchase some milk before heading back to their campsite, which would turn out to be the last confirmed sighting of the family. That evening, the Cowdens were scheduled to have dinner at the home of Belinda’s mother, Ruth Grayson, but never arrived. When Ruth travelled to the campsite, she discovered that the entire family was missing and their truck and all of their possessions had been left behind. The only items which could not be accounted for were their bathing suits. Ruth reported the Cowdens missing to the police and the following morning, Droopy the family dog showed up at the Copper general store, unharmed.
An extensive search effort failed to turn up any trace of the Cowdens, but on April 12, 1975, a pair of gold prospectors discovered what appeared to be a male skeleton tied to a tree on a rocky hillside located seven miles from the Cowdens’ campsite. Police soon found the skeletal remains of a woman and two children wedged inside a nearby cave, and the victims were all eventually identified as the Cowden family. The cause of Richard’s death could not be determined, but Belinda and David were both shot in the head with a .22-caliber rifle while Melissa died from severe head trauma. While investigators believed that Richard was killed where he was found, it was unclear if Belinda and the children were murdered at another location. One volunteer claimed that he already searched the cave in early September 1974, but their bodies were not there at that time. A couple from Los Angeles would later report having camped near Carberry Creek on the same afternoon the Cowdens went missing, where they saw a pick-up truck containing two men and a woman at around 5:00 PM. They said the people inside the truck appeared to be waiting for them to leave, which made them nervous, so they moved on.
The prime suspect in the murders would be a convicted murderer named Dwain Lee Little, who had been paroled in May 1974 and was living with his parents in the nearby community of Ruch, just over 20 miles from the Cowdens’ campsite. In November 1964, at age 15, Little murdered a 16-year old neighbour named Orla Fay Fipps and raped her body after she was already dead. He received a life sentence, but served less than ten years before his release. The Little family owned a pick-up which matched the description of the truck the campers from Los Angeles had seen. On the day the Cowdens went missing, Little claimed that he drove his pick-up from Crescent City, California to Ruch, but denied being in Copper that day even though his quickest route home would have involved driving through there. When investigators checked Little’s pick-up, they were struck by how clean and spotless it looked. Around Christmastime, Little’s girlfriend discovered he was cheating on her, so she decided to inform the authorities that Little owned a .22-caliber rifle, which was a violation of his parole. Even though the rifle could not be located, police told Little he would have his parole revoked unless he agreed to take a lie detector test about the Cowdens’ disappearance. Little refused and elected to go back to prison. He was paroled again in 1977, but would be arrested in June 1980 for abducting, raping and attempting to murder a pregnant woman, for which he received three consecutive 20-year sentences. Little is still incarcerated today at age 70, but even though investigators consider him to be the prime suspect in the Cowden family murders, they lack the evidence to charge him.
I cover this case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” podcast:
trailwentcold.com/2019/02/27/the-trail-went-cold-episode-113-the-cowden-family-murders/
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowden_family_murders
news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19900903&id=i1BTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FocDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819,7100233
mailtribune.com/business/universally-frustrating-for-police-officers-family-members-and-the-community-are-southern-oregon-s-unsolved-murders
archive.org/stream/butitrustedyou00annr/butitrustedyou00annr_djvu.txt
An extensive search effort failed to turn up any trace of the Cowdens, but on April 12, 1975, a pair of gold prospectors discovered what appeared to be a male skeleton tied to a tree on a rocky hillside located seven miles from the Cowdens’ campsite. Police soon found the skeletal remains of a woman and two children wedged inside a nearby cave, and the victims were all eventually identified as the Cowden family. The cause of Richard’s death could not be determined, but Belinda and David were both shot in the head with a .22-caliber rifle while Melissa died from severe head trauma. While investigators believed that Richard was killed where he was found, it was unclear if Belinda and the children were murdered at another location. One volunteer claimed that he already searched the cave in early September 1974, but their bodies were not there at that time. A couple from Los Angeles would later report having camped near Carberry Creek on the same afternoon the Cowdens went missing, where they saw a pick-up truck containing two men and a woman at around 5:00 PM. They said the people inside the truck appeared to be waiting for them to leave, which made them nervous, so they moved on.
The prime suspect in the murders would be a convicted murderer named Dwain Lee Little, who had been paroled in May 1974 and was living with his parents in the nearby community of Ruch, just over 20 miles from the Cowdens’ campsite. In November 1964, at age 15, Little murdered a 16-year old neighbour named Orla Fay Fipps and raped her body after she was already dead. He received a life sentence, but served less than ten years before his release. The Little family owned a pick-up which matched the description of the truck the campers from Los Angeles had seen. On the day the Cowdens went missing, Little claimed that he drove his pick-up from Crescent City, California to Ruch, but denied being in Copper that day even though his quickest route home would have involved driving through there. When investigators checked Little’s pick-up, they were struck by how clean and spotless it looked. Around Christmastime, Little’s girlfriend discovered he was cheating on her, so she decided to inform the authorities that Little owned a .22-caliber rifle, which was a violation of his parole. Even though the rifle could not be located, police told Little he would have his parole revoked unless he agreed to take a lie detector test about the Cowdens’ disappearance. Little refused and elected to go back to prison. He was paroled again in 1977, but would be arrested in June 1980 for abducting, raping and attempting to murder a pregnant woman, for which he received three consecutive 20-year sentences. Little is still incarcerated today at age 70, but even though investigators consider him to be the prime suspect in the Cowden family murders, they lack the evidence to charge him.
I cover this case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” podcast:
trailwentcold.com/2019/02/27/the-trail-went-cold-episode-113-the-cowden-family-murders/
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowden_family_murders
news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19900903&id=i1BTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FocDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819,7100233
mailtribune.com/business/universally-frustrating-for-police-officers-family-members-and-the-community-are-southern-oregon-s-unsolved-murders
archive.org/stream/butitrustedyou00annr/butitrustedyou00annr_djvu.txt