SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Marion County prosecutor says investigators have solved the murder of an 18-year-old woman who was stabbed to death nearly 40 years ago.
Deputy district attorney Paige Clarkson says Janie Landers was a patient at the Fairview Training Center, a now-closed Salem facility for people with developmental disabilities. She disappeared March 9, 1979, and her body was found five days later.
Oregon State Police reopened the case in 2015 at the request of the victim’s sister. Clarkson says blood on Janie’s clothing contained the DNA of Gerald Dunlap, a convicted rapist who died in prison in 2002.
Clarkson says Dunlap worked at Fairview as a laundry worker until he was fired in 1983 for inappropriate behavior toward women.
Detectives noticed old photos of Dunlap closely resembled a composite sketch done at the time. Dunlap’s ex-wife also confirmed the vehicle Dunlap drove in 1979 matched one seen by witnesses when Janie vanished.