In the summer of 1974, Sandra Jane Ramsamooj was a 19-year-old Asian woman working as a grocery store clerk in Salem, Oregon. Her life, full of youthful promise, was brought to a brutal and senseless end on August 17, when she was shot and killed during a robbery at her workplace, the Circle K on the 4300 block of Silverton Road NE. The crime was not an isolated incident but was later connected to a man whose violent rampage spanned multiple states and claimed numerous lives.
On that Saturday, Sandra was working alone in the convenience store in broad daylight. A man entered the store, chased her to a back room, and shot her multiple times. According to later court documents, she was shot in the back, and then shot again through her wrist and into her lungs. The final, fatal shot was to her abdomen at point-blank range. The killer then fled after stealing only $81.29 from the cash register. The shocking violence of the act left the Salem community stunned and searching for answers.
The investigation into Sandra’s murder soon pointed toward Thomas Eugene Creech, a man with a rapidly growing and disturbing criminal record. Just two days before killing Sandra, Creech had murdered 22-year-old William Joseph Dean in Portland, whose body was also discovered on August 17, in Creech's living quarters at St. Mark's Episcopal Church where he worked as a maintenance man. Creech had a history of violence and had even been committed to the Oregon State Hospital months earlier, only to be released.
Creech’s cross-country crime spree came to an end in November 1974 when he was arrested in Idaho for the murders of two house painters, Thomas Arnold and John Bradford. The men had given Creech and his girlfriend a ride while they were hitchhiking. While in custody, Creech began confessing to a staggering number of killings, claiming as many as 42 victims. While many of these confessions could not be substantiated, he provided police with information that led them to the bodies of other victims in Nevada and Wyoming. He also confessed to the murder of Sandra Ramsamooj on November 9, 1974.
Despite his confession, the path to justice for Sandra was complex. Creech was convicted of five murders across three states—Idaho, California, and Oregon—and received multiple life sentences and a death sentence. He was convicted for the murders of Arnold and Bradford in Idaho, for which he was initially sentenced to death before it was commuted to life, and for the murder of Vivian Grant Robinson in California. He also pleaded guilty to the murder of William Joseph Dean in Portland.
Because Creech was already facing these extensive sentences, the Marion County prosecutor in Oregon decided to drop the murder charge against him for Sandra’s death. The prosecutor reasoned that another conviction would not serve any additional justice, given that Creech was already set to spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed. This legal decision meant that, while authorities were certain of his guilt, Creech never stood trial for the murder of Sandra Ramsamooj. His case is a chilling reminder of the far-reaching impact of a single individual's capacity for violence. As of early 2024, Thomas Creech, then 73, remained on death row in Idaho, one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates, after his death sentence was reinstated for murdering a fellow inmate in 1981.
