OR OR - Mary Jo Templeton, 47, Bend, 26 April 1979

scriptgirl

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Again, not much info out on this one, but it is chilling that her death matched other cases in Tennessee and Missouri

From the Bend Bulletin

Mary Jo Templeton: Templeton’s dismembered body was discovered April 30, 1979, after a Pacific Power and Light employee found a human thigh on the grates above the turbines at the north end of Drake Park’s Mirror Pond.

A scuba team searched the area below the power station there and found additional body parts. The rest of her body was found several weeks later in the waters of Mirror Pond.

A state medical examiner found that Templeton’s body had been cut apart with a heavy knife. He estimated that her body had been in the water for a day or two when her thigh was found.

Her last known address was at the El-Rancho Motel in Redmond, and she had worked as a waitress and hostess in Redmond and Bend.

The last person to speak with Templeton was a friend in The Dalles whom she called April 26, 1979.

Templeton stood 5 feet 4 inches, weighed 110 pounds and often wore a black wig over her auburn hair.

In 1988, a detailed description of the murder was sent to the FBI’s violent crimes clearinghouse, which found the method of her killing matched four homicides in Missouri and two in Tennessee. Those murders remain unsolved.
 
SG, I would LOVE any further links or articles, info on this and the other crimes associated with it... Will be doing research of my own, but if you have any I'd sure appreciate it.
 
Not to detract from Mary Jo's case.. but as a possibly related aside, I find it a bit disturbing that this "Pamela Nolen" is said to have been suspected to be involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders, and suspected to have been killed by a confessed serial killer.. and yet I cannot find a single mention of any Pamela Nolen that has gone missing, outside of the above reports relating to Fischer.

Anyone have any info on Pamela Nolen?
 
Ausgirl, I have no research or articles on her-I just stumbled across her case when I was looking up something else on
 
No worries, SG.

So, it seems Mary Jo was an alcoholic who frequented a lot of bars. The MO of Fischer fits.. and her friend claimed they drank with Fischer in a bar right before she was murdered. BUT - Fischer, who seemed very eager to confess his crimes, stated he did not kill a woman in Bend, Oregon (he shot a man in a sleeping bag there, he said, however) and dismemberment was not a part of his MO at all.

The friend could not recall what night it was, exactly, that they had drinks with Fischer, whom she said identified himself by name, and also did not report this incident until after Fischer's arrest.

This gives me doubt as to Fischer's being the perp. He eagerly claimed responsibility for certain murders, was fuzzy on others - I somehow think that if he had done this particular crime, he would have said so.

Mary Jo's friend comes across as a little flaky, also.

Plus, a later article states that the police had a 'prominent suspect' who was proved to be out of town at the time of Mary Jo's death. I am guessing this is Fischer. The sleeping bag, however .. while police said they had no crime to fit that, I swear I read in one of these articles that a woman was found dead in a sleeping bag around that time. Must look into that when I have a moment.

Mary Jo seems.. very vulnerable. I would like to see this case get some attention.
 
She lived a high risk lifestyle and she lived at a hotel and it sounds like a shady motel. Could she have moonlighted as a hooker?
 
I have been following all the details I can find on Mary Jo Templeton. I am confused about the 1974 news article. There is a Trafford, Oregon I do believe(I could be wrong), and a Turtle Creek Apartment complex in Eugene, but theres a Trafford in Pennsylvania.
I am sure the Westinghouse article is Pittsburgh, Penn. So, the trafford group is a Pennsylvania group of workers?


I wonder if the man in the sleeping bag that he(Fischer) confessed to shooting is an illusive cadaver(human remains) I am searching for in Oregon? I am seeking the information linked to a man in a sleeping bag found somewhere in Central Oregon (pretty close relatively to where Mary Josbody parts found). Items I do recall that were processed and shown in an article were:
A coat worn by victim
An Oregon Trails coin purse(pouch) with around a dozen keys in it
A backpack
other items
I saw this info once, but can not relocate it, need help. If he committed that crime and admits it, then we may be able to back track a little more to who that victim may be, as I feel that article I once saw about the sleeping bag victim links to Fischer and to Mary Jo somehow. Maybe they knew each other, or she was linked somehow to another missing person? I do not know the dates of the Sleeping Bag murder, so, thats why I seek info for comparrison.

RIP Mary, May God Bless your soul in His Kingdom. Someday we will know the truth.
 
Bend police still diving into decades-old cold cases

[snip]

Mary Jo Templeton, 47, was a waitress most of her life. Templeton was also known to frequent bars.

Her body was also found in Drake Park in 1979 -- but this time, the victim was in pieces.

[snip]

Police cannot say if either cold case is closer to being solved.

"We cant say it's going to happen this year, next year, and that really, to me, doesn't matter," Carney said. "If it's 10 years from now, if we bring closure to the family and community, that's our job."

More: http://www.ktvz.com/news/bend-polic...ases/-/413192/20199522/-/jchyecz/-/index.html
 
That poor woman-you know, I wonder if this case and the Kristen David case are connected somehow. Idaho is not that far from Oregon.
 
Nearly 40 years later, Bend man searches for woman’s killer

This year, the retired officers who made up the Deschutes County Sheriff’s cold case team called it quits after 13 years without solving any of the dozens of unsolved murders and missing person cases in Central Oregon.

Solving cold cases, it turns out, is hard. Leads dry up, evidence deteriorates, potential witnesses move away, or die.

In a case in Bend, the family of Mary Jo Templeton is left with Tim Underwood, a local voice-over artist, small businessman and one-man investigative unit. Underwood has spent his free time for the past seven months engrossed in the 1979 murder and dismemberment of Templeton.
 
Hi, my name is Brian.
I have recently been engrossed with everything true crime. I've listened to hundreds and hundreds of hours worth of true crime podcasts. I have had this unscratchable itch to find and research cases from my home state of Oregon. My problem is that I have no idea where to begin. If anyone out there can shoot me some links or info on how to get started it would be appreciated greatly. Thank you
 
wow thats really crazy story. and well it kind of like the one murder we had here in my home town in 1983 here in wi
 

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