Katherine Iona Redmond was 18 and a Willamette University student when she was last seen leaving a campus fraternity party in the early morning hours of April 7, 1984. Her borrowed car was found abandoned on the outskirts of Salem with the engine running and the door open; her purse remained inside, suggesting she left suddenly and not of her own accord.

Her body was found in woods about half a mile from the vehicle on April 11, 1984. An autopsy determined her cause of death was traumatic asphyxiation and that she had been sexually assaulted. Investigators focused on a local man, William Scott Smith, after witnesses placed a late-1960s Pontiac station wagon near the scene and Smith had called for a tow truck near where the car was found.

Smith was arrested, charged, convicted in July 1984, and given two consecutive life terms. Did anyone on campus that night remember seeing Katherine leave the party or a station wagon in the area?