Charla Toma was 18 and working on a fishing boat when she and her boyfriend, 19-year-old U.S. Coastguardsman Ricky Dale Hemphill, went for a picnic near the Chetco River east of Brookings, Oregon, on September 9, 1979. They were last seen that day in Hemphill’s pickup truck.

Hemphill’s body was found the next day on a gravel bar about 16 miles from Brookings; he had been shot twice in the back. Charla’s body was discovered later about 24 miles upstream from Hemphill’s location; she had been shot three times in the back. A local hunter’s tip led investigators to suspect 26-year-old Edward Delon Warren. Warren and another man, George Rose, fled when officers stopped a vehicle; both were caught after a chase involving bloodhounds.

At his February 1980 trial Warren confessed, saying Hemphill provoked him and that he later forced Charla to drive upstream before shooting her. Warren pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to two life terms. Warren died in prison in 2003.

Did anyone who knew Charla or Ricky have memories of their plans or the day they disappeared?