1848
The Briggs family settled Springfield in 1848; it was incorporated in 1885.
about 0:09:43The story
Springfield, Oregon sits in west central Oregon beside Eugene, separated from it by the Willamette River, and in 1988 it was a timber town of about 40,000 people. On 1 June 1988 a group of children playing in a wooded area behind a water filtration plant off Hayden Bridge Road, on the edge of town, kicked at some brush, moved the boards underneath and found the body of a young woman. Police recovered a turquoise ring, a lapel or hat pin and strands of human hair near her, but nothing that identified her. About 600 yards away they found a makeshift campsite of the sort used by transients, with cooking pots, utensils, multicoloured candles arranged in a circle and a machete. They rounded up the few transients they could find for questioning and quickly concluded that none of them knew anything about the killing.
The autopsy found that she had been strangled, with a thin, solid object pressed hard against her throat, and that she had been struck several times on the back of the head with a heavy object. She had bruises consistent with a struggle, and the medical examiner found no evidence of sexual assault. Lividity suggested she had been killed where she was found or moved within a minute or two of death. A day or so later a couple began calling police about their missing 19-year-old daughter, and dental records identified her as Melissa Ann Meyer. She had been adopted as a child, had grown up in Seattle, had recently moved to Eugene, was unemployed, and had enrolled in a drug treatment programme in Seattle in the previous year or so. Her last known address was on West 8th Avenue in Eugene, and she was last seen on 30 May in the downtown area. Acquaintances said she spent much of her time at the downtown Eugene mall, which the book James quotes describes as a haunt of prostitutes, drug addicts and pushers.
Three days after the body was found, on Friday 3 June, a relative of 17-year-old Candace Michelle Roy contacted Eugene police to report her missing. Because a 19-year-old had just been found dead, police began looking at once. Roy lived near Santa Clara, a wooded neighbourhood on the north side of Eugene. On the Monday she was found partially clad, with some clothes missing, under trees about four blocks from her house and about five miles from where Meyer was found. A relative identified her. Police treated the two deaths as separate cases but were uneasy about the proximity, and later learned that the two girls knew some of the same people, though they said there was no direct evidence linking the murders.
Women came forward to detectives. He said she had a price on her head, that they needed money and a place to live, and that it is easy to kill a friend because a friend will let you get close.
No weapons were found, but there was jewellery belonging to Meyer.
He first denied knowing how Meyer died, then said he had seen her the day she went missing, then claimed a tree branch had fallen on her head, then said he had been playing with a wooden spear, which stuck in a branch and brought it down on her. Finally he admitted the killing. He described telling her she was being given the honour of sitting at the right hand of Ariok, removing her jewellery as a sacrifice, ripping her clothes to suggest rape, and covering the body with brush and a board. The two were taken back to Oregon and, still without lawyers, agreed to reenact the murder on video three times, alone and together, using a mannequin.
His lawyer, Terry Goff, called the state's account smoke and malarkey and argued accidental self-defence after Meyer supposedly admitted working for Shelton.