Darren Dee O’Neall

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During Darren Dee O'Neall's reign of terror he eluded authorities by changing his appearance

In the mid-80s a killer drifted in and out of local towns in the Pacific Northwest picking off unsuspecting victims.  Listen to the story of Darren Dee O’Neall. He eluded authorities by changing his appearance to continue his reign of terror.

During Darren Dee O'Neall's reign of terror he eluded authorities by changing his appearance
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Tacoma Washington

Tacoma, Washington is located in Pierce County along the Puget Sound. It is known as the “City of Destiny” because it was chosen as the western destination of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 19th century. Tacoma was originally named after the nearby Mount Rainier using the original indigenous name “Takhoma or Tahoma.”

A Night in Puyallup

On March 28, 1987, 21-year-old Robin Smith and her fiance, Larron Crowston, met another couple, Mary Barnes and Darren Dee O’Neall inside Baldy’s Tavern in Puyallup. Not wanting the party to end Barnes and O’Neall invited the couple back to their apartment around 2 a.m. Around 5 a.m. Crowston left the party as he had plans to go fishing with friends that day. He wanted Robin to go with him, but she had wanted to stay

On Sunday when Robin had yet to make contact with Larron so he contacted her mother, Enda Smith assuming she may have stayed at her mom’s house. Edna checked Robin’s old bedroom, but she wasn’t there. Worried that this was totally out of character for Robin the family contacted the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

Robin Is Missing

When Robin was 12 her family moved to the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, Robin wasn’t a stranger to tragedy. When she was 16 one of her friends who she thought was living in California was actually living in Seattle and had been a victim of a brutal rape murder. Thought at first to be connected to the Green River Killer, but didn’t really fit the m.o. She was killed in an apartment and thrown from the 2nd story apartment to the ground below.

Robin who was known for being a hard worker. She was working as a waitress and saving up her money for an upcoming wedding. She was also quite attractive at 5’3’’, 115 lbs, blonde hair and blue eyes.

Detectives talked with Mary Barnes one of the hosts of the party. She told detectives that she had planned to drive Robin home early that morning, but her plans changed when she hooked up with another man at the party leaving her apartment around 8 a.m. When she returned later that day neither Robin nor her live-in boyfriend, Darren were there.

Also Missing

Also missing were several items:

  • Darren’s clothes
  • Food
  • Camping gear
  • A blanket
  • The electrical cord attached to the tv had been removed
  • Two other extension cords to lamps were also gone

Detectives found a storage box that had belonged to Darren Dee O’Neall. Inside were several social security cards. One with the name of Zebulun Macranahan. Detectives would find that Macranhan was the name of a character in a book written by Louis L’Amour and an alias that O’Neall had used in the past. Mary also told detectives when she left Darren had been talking to Robin about his love of reading Louis L’Amour novels. They were about life in the old west. He talked about wanting to live off the land just like the novel cowboys he liked to read about.

Barnes told detectives that Darren Dee O’Neall was currently unemployed, but had worked as a bartender and a laminator in a cabinet-making business. She also told detectives what they would also confirm from others that O’Neall would often change his appearance. From growing out his hair, cutting it off, wearing a beard, and fluctuating weight

Detectives were not hopeful that Robin would be found safe.

Holding Out Hope

What detectives didn’t know is that around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday O’Neal had gone to see a former employer ask for some money. He told him he was interested in buying a truck and was heading east towards the Cascade Mountains.

When Darren Dee O’Neall arrived he was driving a 1972 tan Chrysler New Yorker with Montana license plates. As he was about to leave the former employer ran over to his car offering to write him a check. That’s when he noticed that something was pushing against the back seat from the trunk side. O’Neall claimed that he had put his dog in the trunk as punishment and took off. Later when this employer would talk to the police he would tell him that he never heard a dog barking from inside the trunk.

Hospital Run

On the evening of March 29th, a man entered a local hospital ER requesting help for some facial cuts he had. Nurses on staff were on edge and with no security, they called down some male co-workers to be on stand-by. The man had a teardrop tattoo in the corner of his eye and the letters J-U-N-E across the knuckles on his left hand. This was the name of his ex-wife.

The man appeared to be extremely nervous and left the ER without receiving any treatment.

Flagman

Detectives had no idea where Darren Dee O’Neall had gone and started running down any lead they could find. They discovered that O’Neall had a warrant out for his arrest from Colorado Springs, Colorado. He had been accused of sexual assault. Police blanketed the area with fliers about Robin’s disappearance and identifying features.

What she was last seen wearing:

  • Blue jeans
  • Pink and white shirt
  • Lavender jacket
  • Tennis shoes

They also entered O’Neall’s physical characteristics, tattoos, and the make and model of the car he was last seen driving into NCIC. Darren Dee O’Neall was 5’11’’, 170 lbs, medium build, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a light complexion. In talking with another former employer of O’Neall they discovered that he also had been looking for him. He told detectives that on O’Neall’s last day he had taken a hammer from the shop and he wanted it back.

On March 30th a highway flagman, who had seen the flyers contacted police. He told them that he was working on a highway east of Tacoma when he saw the 1972 Chrysler heading south. What stood out to him was that this car didn’t seem to be hauling any ski equipment as most vehicles did as they were headed towards Mt. Rainier. A few hours later he saw that same car at a gas station near the highway. The flagman was shown a photo lineup and he easily picked out O’Neall.

Abandoned 

A Washington State Trooper spotted a tan Chrysler on the afternoon of March 30th at an area rest stop 15 miles north of Everett, Washington which is north of Seattle. Unaware of the ongoing investigation he called in the license plate and vehicle description. Normally that would have triggered the NCIC listing, but that didn’t happen. The police communication officer had mistakenly typed in “MO” and not “MT” for Montana. “MO” stands for Missouri.

The car was towed to a nearby impound lot for future sale. A local paper ran a story about Robin’s abduction and what the police had released to the media regarding the car they had been looking for. A tow truck dealer reading the story checked a car that had come in. The make, model, and license plate matched so he contacted police.

Once police took control of the car they ran the vehicle ID number. It came back as a stolen from Idaho in 1986. The name of the person suspected of stealing the car was Zebulan Macranahan. Detective Wilson remembered that was one of the aliases Darren Dee O’Neall had used.

At the Pierce County Police Garage the Chrysler was processed for trace evidence. In the trunk, technicians found a large amount of dried blood along with a blood-stained lavender jacket. Robin’s mother would later identify it as belonging to Robin. Also, in the trunk were teeth and bone chips along with a clump of hair. Empty beer cans would be processed and O’Neall’s fingerprints would be on them. Hope that Robin was still alive was all but gone. Her case had gone from a missing person case to a homicide.

Game, Set, Not Quite a Match

At the Washington State Forensic Lab work had started to confirm that the teeth, bone chips and blood were in fact Robins. A problem that they ran into was that Robin had not been to see the dentist since she was a child and she had no documented blood type on file. Since authorities were unable to confirm that the evidence collected was Robins’ no murder charges could be filed.

Due North

Meanwhile, in Bellingham Washington, Detective C. Jarrett was working on a missing person’s case. Bellingham is located approximately 120 miles north of Takoma. On April 24, 1987, Wendy Aughe, a 28-year-old single mother was reported missing after she failed to pick up her daughter after going out on a date the night before. Wendy’s mother had gone over to her house the next morning and that is when she discovered blood in Wendy’s bed.

She immediately called the police. Police obtained a warrant to start collecting evidence. Wendy’s red Ford Torino was missing. When police arrived after talking to Wendy’s mother they found that Wendy’s front door was unlocked and her wallet and keys were missing.

Blood Evidence

Police also found a large amount of blood had seeped into Wendy’s mattress. They also found both medium and high-impact blood splatter on the walls by her bed along with seminal fluids left in the bed. Wendy’s bed was taken into evidence.

More of Wendy’s blood was found on the headboard along with two long blonde hairs that didn’t belong to her. Also, a red acrylic fingernail was found in the sheets. According to Wendy’s friends, she had gone out on a date with a man named Michael Johnson. She had gotten her nails done for her date. Wendy had met Michael earlier in the day when she had gone to the LaPaloma Restaurant for lunch. Michael was the new bartender.

When Detective Jarrett talked with the owner of the restaurant to inquire about what information Michael put down on his application they discovered that there was no work application. Michael had written his information down on a placemat. The placemat was sent off to evidence to see if they could pull any fingerprints off of it and run the fingerprints. Apparently, Johnson had only worked for the restaurant for two days before he suddenly took off after emptying out the cash register and stealing some liquor.

The Light House

Detective Jarrett then went to the address that Michael Johnson had put as his residence. It turned out to be the local Light House Mission. Detective Jarrett spoke to the desk clerk who remembered Johnson specifically on the day he moved out of the mission.

The day after his date with Wendy around 7:30 am Johnson left wearing a white shirt, black slacks, vest and tie telling him that he was going to work, but that he would be moving out as he had met a lady and was moving in with her. As he drove away the clerk noticed Johnson driving a red Ford Torino, when he previously didn’t have a car.

Abandoned No Longer

On May 1, 1987, Detective Jarrett received a call from police in Eugene Oregon. They had found Wendy’s car abandoned in the parking lot of a tavern on the corner of West Fourth & Blair Streets. They were able to recover fingerprints that matched the fingerprints on Michael Johnson’s placemat. Running the prints through an identification system and it showed a match to a Darren Dee O’Neall

Detective Jarrett contacted Pierce County Detectives and the two compared notes on both missing women. At this point, Pierce County reached out to the FBI for assistance. FBI Special Agent Dell Orris was assigned to the case.

To Catch a Predator

What the FBI knew was that O’Neall was an extremely mobile and dangerous predator who had a history of violent sexual acts. He was now tied to two disappearances and one potential murder. Charges could not be formally filed since neither woman’s body had been discovered, but the sexual assault charges were still pending in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The FBI opened a federal case against O’Neall for Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution. In May 1987 with O’Neall still, on the loose, the FBI and local authorities launched a media campaign blanketing O’Neall’s various photos in area newspapers. They informed the public of O’Neall’s connection to the cases of two missing women from Washington state who were being presumed dead.

FBI agents fanned out all across the Pacific Northwest. They followed various tips with one coming from a trucker on May 23, 1987, who reported that he had given a ride to a man who told him police were after him. One of the difficulties was how often O’Neall changed his appearance. People believed that the pictures authorities had released had been two different people. The FBI focused on the areas a drifter might blend in such as bus stations, homeless shelters, and day labor camps. The leads never seemed to pan out as the FBI and local authorities seemed to be one step behind.

Who’s That Man

Darren O’Neall was born on February 26, 1960, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was one of four children born to Darrell and Christa O’Neall. The family was constantly moving due to Darrell O’Neall’s career in the Army. O’Neall graduated high school and soon married his high school sweetheart, June. They had one child, a son.

O’Neall would have another son from a common-law marriage to a woman in Levittown, PA while still legally married to June. At one point, O’Neall joined the Army and looks to have been discharged on February 28, 1982. It seems that this is when his life of drifting and criminal offenses began.

At one point, Pierce County Detectives asked the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit to develop a profile on their suspected killer. To them, he fit their classic profile of what a serial killer would be. They felt that he might have been acting out a fantasy when he kidnapped and killed Robin Smith.

Hiker’s Discovery

About two months after Robin’s disappearance on Crystal Mountain, which lies east of Mount Rainier, hikers came across some human remains close to where the flagman had spotted O’Neall driving the tan Chrysler. Just inside the woodline, a skull and jaw bone were discovered. Police carefully collected the items and searched the surrounding area. They found additional bones scattered in the vicinity and in the base of a nearby tree they found some folded clothing matching the clothing Robin was last seen wearing. Also inside the tree was a wallet with Robin’s driver’s license inside it.

Further searching turned up a claw hammer. It was similar to the one O’Neall’s former employer reported missing. The claw hammer would be confirmed to be the murder weapon by the medical examiner. Robin’s cause of death was the result of blunt force trauma. Darron Dee O’Neall was charged with murder in the first degree for the intentional death of Robin Smith.

The FBI issued another Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant for O’Neall.

Still on the Loose

In June 1987 with O’Neall still on the loose and Wendy still missing FBI Special Agent Michael Elsie of the Portland field office was called in to assist. He began looking at local sexual assault cases that were not solved to see if they’re any more links to O’Neall. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to pan out.

Then FBI Agent Elsie met with Portland Police Detective Bill Carter to look at sketches of local sexual predators. Since O’Neall looked very different in all his mug shots this was a stretch, but one picture seemed to stand out. This photo was related to the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl, Heidi Lang (may not be her real name).

Her description of what happened matched O’Neall’s m.o. Around midnight on January 17, 1987, two months before Robin’s murder, Heidi left her home to walk to a nearby convenience store to buy a soda in north Portland. This was a tough part of town, but Heidi had walked it plenty of times, although never that late at night. As she crossed the street near the I-5 overpass ramp, a trucker called to her from his parked rig, but she ignored him. Heidi got to the store, bought her soda, and started to walk back to her house. She was hoping to get back before her mom realized she had left. As she neared the overpass she noticed the truck and the trucker were gone.

Heidi Is Abducted

Suddenly the trucker jumped out of the bushes jamming what he told her was a gun into her back. He then forced her down an embankment and into his semi-truck. Heidi felt that her abductor had every intention of killing her. After forcing Heidi into the sleeper compartment of the truck he took off driving south on I-5 for approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The man threatened to make her a whore, sell her to pimps, and cut her open if she angered him.

Heidi tried to keep him talking, but at one point he stopped the truck, climbed into the back, and repeatedly raped and sodomized her for four hours. Even after enduring all of this, she tried to keep him talking. She wanted to give him the impression that she was insignificant and that she was just there to be with him and if he let her go it wouldn’t mean anything. And that’s just what he did! After driving for 15 minutes he left her on the side of the road.

Heidi ran until she reached a truck stop in Aurora and asked an employee there for a ride home. Once home she told her mother what happened and they called the police. Heidi bravely submitted to a rape examination.

Closing In

When an FBI agent met with Heidi and her mother she was shown a photo line-up and she easily picked out Darren O’Neall. The FBI contacted the Takoma office telling them that they had a witness to testify against O’Neall when he was caught. In June 1987, Darren Dee O’Neall’s name was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. Countless sightings were reported all over the Pacific Northwest, but as time passed any leads seemed to dry up, but…

On February 3, 1988, in Lakeland Florida, an on-duty police officer was watching what he suspected was a drug deal. The man in the car then pulled up alongside the cop car and asked for directions pretending to be lost. When the officer told him to pull over the man took off at a high rate of speed. Officers gave pursuit calling in the car’s Louisiana tags. When the suspect’s car hit a curb he took off on foot but was soon captured.

John Mayeaux

The suspect gave his name as John Mayeaux and was in the process of being transported back to Louisiana. A  rookie female officer with the Lakeland Police Department took it upon herself to compare Mayhew’s fingerprints with those listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. She discovered a match to Darren Dee O’Neall. O’Neall was extradited back to Washington state to face charges.

The charges were only related to Robin’s murder since Wendy’s body had yet to be found. Prosecutors worried that Robin’s case was not strong since it lacked a definitive identification from the evidence in the trunk, but they decided to take their chances. On January 4, 1989, in a Pierce County courtroom, O’Neall’s trial began with the jury selection, however…

O’Neall shocked the courtroom by pleading guilty to the murder of Robin Smith. Did he honestly feel remorseful and want to take responsibility or was there another reason? In Washington state at that time, there was an interesting legal loophole. If a suspect pleaded guilty to murder the maximum amount of time they could get was 333 months behind bars. A little shy of 28 years. Robin’s family was devastated knowing that O’Neall could someday be free.

Not All Is Lost

O’Neall still faced charges for the kidnapping and rape against Heidi Lang in Oregon. If convicted for that crime he could be put away for life, but a problem arose when prosecutors discovered that the rape kit could not be used as a comparison to O’Neall because it had been improperly stored and had molded. DNA evidence wasn’t available at the time

On May 16, 1990, O’Neall’s trial began and Heidi was called to the stand. Heidi years later would recount how difficult it was for her to face O’Neall again fearing that if he was not convicted and got out he would come after her. Her fears were put to rest when the jury came back and convicted O’Neall of 16 counts of kidnapping and rape and sentenced him to 135 years in prison.

Currently, O’Neall is serving his 27-year sentence in Washington State Penitentiary after which he will be transported to Oregon to begin serving the rest of his life behind bars. O’Neall is also suspected of abducting and killing another woman, Lia Szubert, whose body was found along Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.

Szubert was from Twin Falls, Idaho, and had been traveling to pick up her boyfriend on June 9, 1987, when her car broke down near the Gear Jammer Truck Stop in Mountain Home. O’Neall had denied any involvement in Lia’s murder and no evidence except for similarities with Robin’s murder connect him to this crime. Overall, O’Neall is suspected of abducting and murdering up to six women, but only ever convicted of one.

Wendy Aughe’s body has never been found.

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