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Sergeant Carl Frazier
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Detective Roy Dirks
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| October 9, 1979 - Sgt. Carl L. Frazier died of a heart attack climbing a hill during a marijuana eradication investigation. |
April 11, 1975 - Detective Roy H. Dirks was investigating a drowning incident in the Blue River area when he was shot and killed by Belinda Lederer, a member of the Norman "Snake" Brooks family.
Lederer was convicted of manslaughter and Brooks was convicted of hindering prosecution. Suspects belonged to a communal group that had prior contacts with Detective Dirks.
Roy previously was a resident deputy in the Cottage Grove area. |
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Deputy Carlton Smith
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Deputy Robert Riley
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July 6, 1965 - Deputy Carlton Smith was killed on his first night of patrol as a solo officer. While making a routine traffic stop in the area which is now the Valley River Center off ramp, he was shot by Carl Cletus Bowles and Wilford Gray, both escaped convicts.
Carl Cletus Bowles escaped from Oregon State Penitentiary custody June of 1974 and was the focus of a huge manhunt in Eugene on June 14, 1974. He subsequently kidnapped a couple from South Eugene and later murdered them in Washington. He was recaptured and convicted of the homicides.
Deputy Smith left a widow, Margaret Perdue, five sons and a daughter. Randy Smith was a Captain with the Lane County Sheriff's Office and another son, Don Smith, worked as a Eugene Police officer. |
August 17, 1958 - Deputy Robert M. Riley was riding in an off-duty capacity with a Springfield Police Officer and merchant patrolman. While in pursuit of a speeding vehicle, that was fleeing the scene of a reported alarm activation, an intoxicated driver turned in front of the patrol car. The officer used evasive measures to avoid the drunk driver, but in doing that ran into a car in a gas station lot. It then crashed into a telephone pole that was 10 feet above the ground.
Mr. Riley, a Lane County reserve deputy, died as a result of the injuries suffered in the accident. |
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Chief Criminal Detective David Hefner
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Deputy C. Rollin Wicks
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| July 13, 1957 - Chief Criminal Detective David D. Hefner responded to a family disturbance call in the River Road area. During the altercation, Detective Hefner was shot in the back. Detective Hefner spent four months in a local hospital. As his diagnosis worsened, Detective Hefner was transported to a naval base hospital. He died enroute. |
May 14, 1937 - Deputy Rollin Wicks was killed by a neighbor during arrest after the man shot and wounded another neighbor while engaged in a dispute. Deputy Wicks was unarmed at the time.
The suspect later died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound after holding off deputies, state police officers, employees of the nearby Booth Kelly Mill and 500 residents of Wendling. Deputies surrounded the house for five hours while tear gas was rushed to the scene from Salem. |
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Sheriff W. W. Withers
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| February 7, 1903 - Sheriff William W. Withers was killed attempting to apprehend Elliott Lyons, a horse thief, wanted in Jackson County. The slayer escaped, but a huge posse was formed and he was captured in Creswell under a train that was heading out of town. In Eugene, Oregon, under the direction of Fred Fisk, a deputy under Withers and a Lane County Judge, witnessed the hanging of Lyons outside the Lane County Courthouse. This was the last public function of the kind in the state. |
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