Notorious California serial killer Randy Kraft has been identified as the suspect in the murder of a man almost 45 years ago, police said Friday.
Larry Eugene Parks, 30, was found dead along Interstate 5 on the morning of July 18, 1980, in Oregon, according to the Oregon State Police. An investigation into his death was opened, but Parks remained a John Doe until just last month, after an investigator from the sheriff’s department in Orange County, California, offered to help identify him using forensic genealogy in 2024.
Kraft, who remains incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, was convicted of brutalizing and killing 16 men during a decadelong series of slayings in Orange County, California, that ended with his arrest. The convicted murderer is also suspected of committing over 60 murders across the West Coast and Michigan, police said.
To identify Parks as another potential victim, a genetic profile was created using a sample of his blood, which helped investigators find and contact possible family members. They submitted DNA, leading to his identification. Parks was a Vietnam veteran and had lost contact with his family a year before his death.
“Until his identification last month, the circumstances of his disappearance were unknown to the Parks family,” police said.
Police believe Kraft, who was arrested in Orange County, California, in 1983, is responsible for Parks’ death. Evidence from the murder, along with the murder of another man who was also found on I-5 the day before Parks, was transferred to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to be used in court, but remained in the county until 2024, when the investigator set out to identify the 30-year-old, according to police.
“With Parks’ identity confirmed, investigators are now working to bring resolution to the 45-year-old case,” police said.
In 2023, an Iowa teen believed to have been one of Kraft’s earliest victims was also identified using genealogy.
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