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All-Alaska Weekly, April 8,1983Page 5Chapter 1 Reign of TerrorFor two years, from the summer of 1979 through the summer• lt;* * '• ,of 1981, Fairbanks was gripped with a reign of terror. A mass murderer was on the prowl cruising the streets and byways in a small turquoise compact car or a light tan pickup truck particularly in the North Polearea between Eielson AirBase andWain wrightlookingyoung womenhiking, walkingwasAndfound at least five of them which he murdered andIIIIIies on the tundra.Fairbanks had never experienced a case of mass murder before and the citizenry was overwhelmed. Massive searches were conducted to try to find the bodies of missing young women. Police were deluged with information from citizens they thought might be helpful to the case. Law enforcement officials found it difficult to manage the large amount of data that accumulated and particularly to analyze it forrelationships.And it was not until two years later, on March 15 of this year, that the ordeal came to a stunning, abrupt conclusion when police closed in on a former Eielson airman who had been transferred toWichita Falls, Texas.After confessing informally to the murders, Tech. Sgt. ThomasRichard Bunday, 34, knew it was only a matter of hours before warrants for his arrest would be reaching Texas.He checked with the Shephard Air Force Legal Office to be sure his next-of-kin papers were in order, he dropped off income tax information at a ’ ichita Falls H R Block office and then he'ASapparently committed suicide by driving his motorcycle at high speed into a semi-dump truck. The driver of the truck said he tried to avoid hitting Bunday by driving off the road but that Bunday drove off the road, too. The driver said he drove back on the road and Bunday followed as if he purposely wanted to be struck.Bunday on his cycle struck a rear wheel of the truck and toreit off the axle. The cycle and Bunday landed about a 100 yards away.The long arm of the law finally caught up with the mass murderer but he found a way out through death.F airbanksansrelieved, from law enforcement officialsrelatives and friends of the victims, to the average man and woman on the street. As the chief investigator in the case said at a news con-BundayttFairbankssame agamgruelingordeal from the time the murders begatrackedChaptedaughterTrooperThat night when she did her to bring the family school student disappearedNightmare Begins and Mis. Ellis Armstrong not arrive home at 1 Mile, truck to that location.The nightmare started of North Pole, wasseen Dennis Road, her husband,while hitchhiking at 24 Mile, Richardson Highway.on Aug. 29, 1979. Nine- jetting into abrown to J13, between 5:45 and 6 Two witnesses said theyteen-ystrongGlenda Arm- tan pick-up truck at 24SodemanntheRichardsonShe had a small child p.m. Doris Oehring dis- saw her get into a pick-upand while she was prone appeared never to be seen truck. Her body was foundto hitchhike it was unusual again by her family or three days later near 1.7for her not to return home friends. That night, at 9:30 Mile, Johnson Road, theor let her husband know p.m. her father reported road that leads to Pumpher whereaboutsp.m.her disappearance to the Station 8. She had been As days and weeks pass- police. And the next day strangled and shot through ed, fears arose that she about 200 volunteers scour- the head, but was fully had met with foul play, ed the area in a futile clothed and had not been And on Oct. 1 of that attempt to find her. It was sexually assaulted, year, those fears were con- the first in a large number On Thursday, May 14. firmed. Her decomposed of similar searches which about 7:30 p.m. two menwaspit at 21Highway.Shealso revealed nothing.returning from a fishinghadRichardson The strange disappear- trip discovered the bodyance of a 11-year-old from ’ of Marlene Peters lying been shot a busy highway at the off the roadway on a sidemost traveled time of the road near 32 Mile, RichardsonIBy Rep. John RingsUdLast week went by quickly in Juneau; we took Good Friday as a holiday and mosteveryone left town to spendthe Easter weekend with their family. 1 hope that you had a nice Easter.We are back at work and have increased our schedule as we aim for a short session. We will be meeting on the floor each day at 10 a.m. and the Resources Committee has begun meeting daily, too. Schedules are getting very tight; if you want to reach the Interior Delegation members, I wouldsuggest that you take advantage of either the Tuesday night teleconferences or the Thursday noon brown bag lunches.Call the local Legislative Information Office for infor-jductedboth thosemation on meetings. Either I or my aide, Drue Pearce, is always at these meetings to hear your opinions, complaints and concerns.Two bills concerning the proposed Susitna Hydro project will have their first hearings in the Resources Committee this week. I am very interested in these pieces of legislation and feel that it is important that we do our homework well in order to make a decisionquestion would be placed on the ballot for a special statewide election in October, 1983.You, the voters, would be asked if an amendment should be made to our constitution which would provide for an annual dedication of state revenue for 10 years beginning in FY84 in an amount totaling $2,300,000,000. This$2.3 billion fund would pay for the construction of the project, with inflationary costs added.House Bill 99 would appropriate funds to the Alaska Power Authority for use in FY84 for continuation of an intensive program of development activity in Susitna. The exact amount of funding willbe discussed extensively during the hearing of the bill in theResources Committee. - -The first version of the bill would have appropriated$47 million which would maintain the possibility of being “ready to construct” in 1985 according to the Power Authority. A later version wouldappropriate only $22 million on hiswhich would support the FERC compact car. licensing process but not design.through the head with a.357 magnum pistol and day aroused the concernfrom what officials have of the community. The Subsequent investigationfound out later, she also Chena Kiwanis Club, United revealed that she had diedprobably was strangled. Way, and state troopers as a result of strangulPositive identification was among other organizations tion and a 20 gauge shot-made through dental rec- put on benefits to raise gun blast to the head.reward funds. Such funds On May 16, just twoords.The second chapter in at the nightmare occurred on $12onetime13, 1980 when 11-exceeded days later, Lori King, 18,disappeared from the city At on at least one occa- of Fairbanks. She had leftyear-old Doris Oehring, sion Gov. Jay Hammond Hamilton Acres on herway to her apartment inLemeta and some of herBut as the friends say they thoughtdaughter of Jim and Jo-Anne Oehring, of Persinger Drive, was apparently ab-asked Alaskans to pray for Doris Oehring and herwhilesafe recovery bicyling weeks passed and the coldthey saw her on Collegehome from a swimming lesson at North Pole. Herdarkwinter approached Road between the old andbicyclehopes faded that she would new Steese Highways.wasfound on ever be found alive.By this time the reignBadger Road at about 9 3/4 Mile, about 1/4 mile from Plack Road. It was very near the same spot whereThedisappearance of of terror in the FairbanksDoris Oehring and the mur- area was at its height,der of Glenda Armstrong Troopers the next wSodemann were at first conducted a public safetytwo days earlier she had considered by the police awareness meeting at NorthstoppecPon her way to a as separate, individual cases. Pole at which hundredsswimming lesson at North But on Jan. 31, 1981 attended.when a young native girl The purpose was to in-Hedressedstrangerfrom Tanana, Alaskaform citizens in the com-attire, had the hood up Marlef Pe‘ers’ ?!. '^ap “'''*7 Badff Road-blue-greenNext week’s column will haveon the continuation of the more informationSusitnaproject.House Bill 121 would authorize an advisory vote on a method of financing the Susitna River Hydroelectric Project. TheAs I said, I am anxious to hear what you think of the proposals for this massive project.Reach us at 465-4998 or Pouch V. luneau. Alaska 99811.Following behind herabout a 100 yards on his bicycle was Oehring’s brother, Tom. When he approached thepeared,wonderrelated.began to North Pole, Eielson Air cases were Force Base and the Salehaarea of the increaseacts of v*ncc,OnChapter HI Killings CMarch5,1981,scene, he heard the military Wendv Wilson, 16, an Eiel-man ask his sister to call \jr Force Base highhis wife on the base to askmajoraids in preventing furthersuch acts, and solicitingof information that mightlead to a solution to thecrime wave.-Continued on page 6
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Pioneer All Alaska Weekly
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Fri, Apr 08, 1983
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Sean M.
USA 04 Sep 2019
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