Rebecca Ann Darling was 21 when she vanished from an all-night convenience store in Salem, Oregon, during the early morning hours of February 19, 1984. A customer saw her at about 3:20 a.m., and by 3:50 a.m. another patron found the store abandoned; there were no immediate signs of struggle at the scene.

On March 25, 1984 the decomposed body of a 21-year-old white female was found concealed in brush along the Little Pudding River, about six miles northeast of Salem. She was nude from the waist up, her hands bound behind her back, and had been strangled with a piece of rope; the death was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation. The condition and location of the remains suggested a deliberate attempt to hide the body.

Investigators focused on William Scott Smith, a local man with prior convictions for menacing, burglary and indecent exposure who was already in custody on unrelated obscene and threatening phone call charges. Smith was arraigned April 26, 1984 on two counts of first-degree murder including Darling’s killing, waived a jury trial, and was convicted in July 1984; the judge imposed two consecutive life terms. Anyone with memories of Rebecca, the store that night, or the area around Little Pudding River is asked to share what they know.