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rage fAl-Ataka Weekly, April 29,1983AThe following is a summary of the investigation conducted into the killings of five young women who were murdered near Fairbanks, Alaska between August 1979 and May 1981. Particular attention is paid to the development of leads whichled to the identification and confession of the killer, Thomas Richard Bunday.On Aug. 29, 1979, theAlaska State Troopers received a report that 19-year-old Glenda Sodemann had disappeared from the vicinity, of her residence. Subsequently her decomposed body was found near a gravel pit located about 22 milessouth of Fairbanks close to Moose Creek and Eielson Air Force Base (AFB).Sodemann had been shotin the head with solid leadbullets. Examination of the bullets indicated that they were probably fired from a weapon of approximately .38 caliber.The early stages of the investigation focused on Jerry Sodemann, the husband of the victim, as the prime suspect. Sodemann was subsequently cleared of suspicion by investigation. Nothing about the case indicated that it was the beginning of a larger pattern of killings.On June 13, 1980, 11-year-old Doris Oehring disappeared while riding her bicyclealong Badger Road about 15 miles south of Fairbanks near the City of North Pole.The only sign'left of Doris was' her bicyde, which was found hidden in some bushes along the side of the road. Awitness described having seen a small blue or blue-green car race out of a turnoff located near where the bicyde was found at about the sametime that Doris would have,been riding past that spot.Investigation revealed thatDoris* older brother, Thomas Oehring, had seen her talking to a stranger along that same section of Badger Road about two days prior to her disappearance. Thomas Oehring reported that the stranger was driving a small bluish colored car. Based upon ThomasOehring’s memory of the stranger a composite sketch was developed and was widely circulated in the Fairbanks area.Because the clothing description of the stranger who had been_ seen talking to Oehring suggested that he might be a member of the Air Force, the Eielson Security Police wererequested to provide a list ofall vehicles registered on Eielson AFB which met the description of the Oehring abduction car.During July of 1980 the Air Force Security Police at Eielson AFB provided the Alaska State Troopers with a list containing approximately 550 license plate numbers.Thomas Richard Bunday’sname first surfaced during this investigation as the owner ofone of those vehicles. In addition to the' license plate numbers provided by the Eielson Security Police, numerous blue, blue-green, and aqua colored small cars were reported over the next several months to the Alaska State Troopers Investigations Unit by law enforcement officers and by the public.At this time, the Alaska State Troopers were not aware that the investigation was dealing with a single killer who was responsible for the deaths of both Sodemann and Oehring.On Jan. 31, 1981, 20-year-old Marlene Peters was reported to the Alaska State Troopersas a missing person by her family. The investigator assigned handled the case as a routine missing person’s case. Although it was suspected that Peters might well have met with foul play, there was no indication that her disappearance had any connection with the series of killings which later came to be known as the Fairbanks Area lt;Serial Murders.On March 5, 1981, 16-year-old Wendy Wilson disappeared, having last been seen in the Moose Creek area.The investigation revealed that she was last seen getting into a light-colored pickup truck near the Moose Creek Apartments. The investigators assigned to Wilson’s case began to suspect that a systematic killing of young females was occuringin the Fairbanks arsa.This was graphlcaBy reinforced on Match 8,1981, when Wendy Wilson’s body was foundabout 32 miles south of Fairbanks on Johnson Road. Shehad been strangl d and shot inthe head with shotgun.On May 14, 1981 it became evident that the suspicions of the investigators were being proven correct. On that date, the body of Marlene Peterswas found near Johnson Road,approximately two miles from where Wilson’s body had been found. She had also been shot in the head with a shotgun. The location of Peter’s bodyand the manner of her death dosely matched that which had been observed in the killings of both Sodemann and Wilson.On May 16, 1981 two days after the discovery of Marlene Peter’s body, 19-year-old Lori King was reported to the Fairbanks City Police as a missing person. King was last seen walking in the Hamilton Acres area of Fairbanks.Despite intensive investigation, including massive groundsearches of the Johnson Road area, no sign of King could be found. Because of the media attention directed towards these cases public interest and concern reached its apex during the sum -merof 1981.During the summer of 1981 a joint federal and state task force was created in Atlanta, Ga. to investigate the killingsW£Wof young black males which had been occurring in that city.In late August of 1981 Investigator Barnard traveled to Atlanta to confer with the Atlanta Homicide Task Force. In that investigation, the management of the thousands ofleads generated during the investigation became the paramount problem.The enormous volume of information was far exceeding the then established capabilities and methods for case management usually used by policedepartments. The use of computerized data processing to manage this avalanche of information had been explored in Atlanta.The experience of the Atlanta Homicide Task Force indicated that the investigation of the Fairbanks Serial Murders couldbe facilitated through the use of a computerized data retrieval system.Following Investigator Barnard’s return to Alaska the acquisition of a computer system was seriously discussed, and in early 1982, a computer program was obtained for the use of the Fairbanks Homicide Task Force and arrangementswere made to run the programon a computer located at theState Data Center in Anchorage.Prior to his return to Alaska, Investigator Barnard also traveled to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy, wherediscussed theserial murders occurring in Fair banks with the Behavioral Sci ences Unit of result of thatFBIvisitBehavioral Science Unit prepared a psychological profile of the killer in the Fairbanks SerialMurders.Force met frequently during the winter of 1981-1982, attempting to prioritize all of the available leads by their importance, and then to follow as many as possible to their conclusions.In April of 1982 a computer terminal .connecting thely low priority due to the fact that Bunday failed to exhibit some of the significant characteristics of the FBI profile.In addition numerous reports of significantly bizarre behavior implicating other individuals were being received by the Task Force on a dailypects were those personnel who1 who ielsonhad been stationed at Eie AFB and who had been transferred after the May 1981 killing of Lori King.JCThe name of Thomas Rich- bors andAt this time the main thrust of the investigation turned to learning everything possible about Thomas Richard Bunday. Numerous friends, neigh-ard Bunday again appeared as a result of this process, his transfer from the Fairbanksviewed, and it was learned thatBunday was generally considered to be a loner and not too wellt. 3, 198 the body Task Force Head [uarters to basis. Many of these leads area having occurred on Sept. thought of. Bundayjori King, the fifth and final the Anchorage Data CenterperceivedFairbanks Serial was connected at the State promising than the ThomasvictimMurders, was discovered on Johnson Road9,1981.InNovember of1982Trooper Building in Fairbanks and members of the Taskleads facial i and physical descriptionresemblance to the com-through the systematic review posite of the stranger who hadBy November of 1982 the of out-of-state homicide cases, been seen talking to DorisInvestigation revealed that Force were trained in its use. Task Force had come to the the Task Force learned of a Oehring two days before herKing had met her death inThree months of round-the-same manner as had three clock effort was required tovictimscause her body had. Government reserva Fairbanks office of theinput all of the leads and information generated during the preceding two and a half years of the investigation into thecould now become involved computer system.investigation In September of 1981 it was decided to formalize the concept of the Areawide Homi-In late February of 1982 Special Agent Mike Kohn, of the Eielson AFB OSI, advised the Task Force that he hadconsensus that the person or persons responsible for the five deaths had either left the area, had died, were incarcerated,or had otherwise been removedfrom the Fairbanks area. The fact that more than a yearhad passed since the occurrencehomicide which had occurred near Wichita Falls, Texas involving a female motorist indistress.The Task Force had contacted over 50 law enforcement agencies and Air Force Bases worldwide for this kindcertainly of information, requesting thatcide Task Force to facilitate identified three persons work-ing on Eielson AFB who exsupported this theory.The Task Force began doing two things at this time.case management and to assure the coordination of the in-they review their files to see if any of their unsolved homicides were similar to those First, the five homicide cases which had occurred in thevestigative efforts of each of wards women. Thomas Rich-hibited unusual behavior to- were individually re-examined Fairbanks area.assure that all possibleThe area in which the vic-the agencies involved.The Task Force, as originally comprised, was made up of personnel from the AlaskaState Troopers, the FederalBureau of Investigations, the Eielson AFB Office of Special indicated that Thomas R. Bun-ard Bunday was one of those tigative leads were completed tim’s body had been foundand recheckedSecondly, iand the manner in which she had been killed paralled thethree.On April 6, 1982 Kohn filed a report detailing the unusual behavior of these three deceased persons, incarcerated tion the homicide had occurred U.S. Air Force personnel which persons, and persons who had near Sheppard Air Force Base.disappearance near the place from which she was abducted.During the time frame of the serial murders Bunday had two vehicles registered to him. One of the vehicles met the general description of the vehicle seen in the area of DorisOehring’s disappearance, the other met the description ofa vehicle suspected to have been used to pick up Wendy Wilson.The investigation revealed that Bunday owned several guns, including at least one handgun of the same calibre as the suspected Sodemann murder wean.of out-of-state homicide cases, Fairbanks homicides. In addi- on. In addition Bunday wasshotguns.Bunday’s work and recrea-Investigations (OSI), the Criminal Investigation Division ofFairbanks area Air Force records provided to tional habits took himday had demonstrated what was afterthe Task Force indicated thatareas where the victimsdescribed as inappropriate be- provided by the FBI was relied Thomas R. Bunday had been had been found. One of theArmy fi n Ft. Wainwright, havior around female co-workersthe Fairbanks City Police Department, and the North Pole City Police Department.The Areawide Homicide Tasksuspectand had generally showed disrespect for members of the female sex.This lead received a relative-nationtransferred to Sheppard AFB victims, Wendy Wilson, had prior to the Wichita Falls homi- last been seen one blork fmmThe easiest group to trace cide and after the last of the Bundayandkillings had occurred in Fair-be the most promising sus- banks.-Continued on page 11
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Pioneer All Alaska Weekly
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Fri, Apr 29, 1983
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Sean M.
USA 04 Sep 2019
Other Publications Near Fairbanks, Alaska
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