Oregon closes book on 3 'I-5 Killer' cases

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PORTLAND, Ore., May 10 (UPI) -- Three unsolved homicides from the 1980s have been linked to the Pacific Northwest's notorious "I-5 Killer," Portland, Ore., police said Thursday.

Investigators using a new DNA extraction technique were able to identify Randall Woodfield as the alleged perpetrator in the slayings of Darcy Fix and Doug Altig in Portland and Julie Reitz in Beaverton, Ore.

Woodfield has been suspected of committing scores of other unsolved homicides in Oregon during his crime spree along Interstate 5 from Northern California to the Seattle area in the 1970s and early 1980s. The violent nature of the crimes, which often included sexual assaults on the victims, was the subject of "the I-5 Killer," a book by crime author Ann Rule.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's office at present will not prosecute Woodfield, who had been in an Oregon state prison since 1985 and is considered unlikely to ever be released, the Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement.

Prosecutors also noted that Oregon law at the time carried a statute of limitations that would prohibit them from filing charges 2012. The DNA testing, however, allowed investigators to officially clear the cases from their books, the statement said.