Michael Andrew Clites, a 24-year-old white man from Portland, Oregon, was found bludgeoned to death on December 5, 1995. His killing was one of several violent deaths that occurred along western U.S. railways in the early to mid-1990s and showed the pattern of a transient attacker preying on vulnerable people traveling by freight train.

Investigators later linked the case to Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., a drifter who admitted to killing Clites and to other murders. Silveria, associated with rail-riding groups, described attacking fellow transients with blunt instruments and taking victims’ identification and belongings. He was arrested March 2, 1996, in a Sacramento rail yard and found with items belonging to multiple victims; he ultimately pleaded guilty and received life sentences.

Clites’s death remains one of the cases that underscored risks faced by rail riders and other marginalized travelers. If anyone knew Michael, saw him in late 1995, or has information about his movements or contacts around that time, please share what is known.