Darren Dee Oneall

Victims

1 conviction in Washington - 6 or more disappearances attributed across four states

Years active

1987

Location

Washington/Oregon/Idaho/Utah, USA

Method

Stabbing with knife / Hitting with a hammer

Status

Arrested on September 22, 1987, and convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Washington in January 1989 for the murder of ROBIN SMITH, a young woman who disappeared in Puyallup that year and was later found dead. THAT IS HIS ONLY CONVICTION. He used names taken from Louis L’Amour novels while moving through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah in 1987. Under the Washington sentencing rules of 1989 a life term for aggravated murder is without parole, but for other degrees of murder it carried a minimum, and NOTHING IN THE ACCESSIBLE RECORD SHOWS WHICH APPLIES TO HIM OR WHETHER ANY BOARD HAS SAT. The archive does not know his present position beyond that he was sentenced to life in 1989 and no release has been reported.

O'Neall was born on February 26, 1960 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He moved through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah in 1987, using names taken from Louis L'Amour novels.

In 1987 Robin Smith, a young woman in Puyallup, Washington, disappeared and was later found dead. Other women disappeared in the same period along his route, and he was linked to several by association rather than by evidence.

He was arrested on September 22, 1987 and was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Washington in January 1989.

The figure of six or more reflects the disappearances attributed to him across the four states. One conviction. No charge was brought in any of the others, and in several the remains were never recovered.

The entry keeps that line because the attributions in this case rest largely on his movements, and a drifter's route through four states will coincide with a number of unsolved disappearances without that meaning anything.