Cline Falls
Darkness descends over the looming trees and picnic tables of Cline Falls State Park in Redmond, Oregon. Summer is in the air, scented with juniper and pine, bringing with it the warm invitation of adventure and exploration.
Two young women, fresh from a day of cycling along the Transamerica Trail, enter the park and decide to spend the night camping beside the trickling waters of the Deschutes River. But there’s a problem.
No matter how hard they try, they cannot escape the lingering sensation that they’re being watched. Unbeknownst to them, their instincts are correct. Shortly after falling asleep, an unknown driver revs their engine and ploughs through their tent, crushing them both. They are bludgeoned with an axe and left for dead, but both miraculously survive. A plausible suspect emerges, but the identity of the attacker is never confirmed.
This is the story of survival against impossible odds, and the determination to uncover the identity of the man who poisoned the tranquil peace of Cline Falls Park in 1977.
A Place for Picnics and Fishing
The Deschutes River punctuates the landscape of Oregon with its rapid waters. Four miles west of Redmond, the river cascades into a six-metre-steep waterfall known as Cline Falls, named after Doctor Cass A. Cline, who owned the adjacent area. Further along, Highway 126 bridges the river for vehicles passing through the area. On the eastern side of the Deschutes River lies the Cline Falls State Park, a nine-acre-large recreational space populated with beautiful pine trees and home to blackbirds and finches. Picnic tables dot its landscape, which is popular with local residents wanting to be enwrapped in nature. Its proximity to the river also provides excellent fishing and swimming opportunities. The park is closed in the winter months but is open to everybody at other times. During one of these times, in June 1977, two young undergraduate students on an adventure passed through the area one fateful evening. The stillness of the air would shift on that same night.
A Summer of Adventure
In 1977, Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman were undergraduate students and roommates at Yale University. Avra was twenty years old and originally from Wellesley, Massachusetts, whilst Terri was a year younger at nineteen and hailed from Western Springs, Illinois. Despite her younger age, friends of the pair considered Jentz to be the more outgoing of the two. After a year of stress and endless deadlines, the pair were pondering how to spend their Summer vacation before classes resumed. After deliberation, they settled on the decision to traverse the Transamerica Trail—a demanding transcontinental route that runs across the country. It was to be an adventure like no other, one where the pair would explore the hidden secrets of America as they navigated across its terrain. It would also be a journey of self-discovery as each of the girls learned more about their strengths and levels of endurance. The journey began and progressed with good intentions. In June, the pair found themselves in Cline Falls State Park and hunkered down for the night. In a matter of hours, however, their adventure would end, and their lives would be irrevocably changed.
The Night of the Attack
On 22nd June 1977, Terri and Avra had been one week into their Summer adventure. They had spent the day arduously cycling along the Transamerica Trail before finding themselves at Cline Falls State Park. Their strength sapped and the pair exhausted, the decision to spend the night in the park had been an easy one. They would wake the next morning and resume their travels. No doubt the gentle beauty of the Deschutes River had also been inviting. They would pitch their tent along its edges and allow the trickling sound of its waters to lull them to sleep. If you were looking for a calm, scenic campsite, you would find it difficult to locate a more idyllic location.
Almost immediately, however, the pair felt uneasy. Both girls felt as though they were being watched, although they could not see anyone else in the park. The pair felt it simultaneously and shared their reservations with one another. But in the absence of an obvious stalker, their instincts were dismissed as paranoia, and the girls resigned to settling in for the night. They pitched their tent beside the river as planned, and quickly fell asleep.
At approximately 11.30 PM, Terri was woken by the loud revving engine of a nearby vehicle. It had pulled up at their campsite and remained motionless. She assumed that partying teenagers had encroached on their site, no doubt drunk and seeking entertainment. Those notions, however, were quickly shattered. The vehicle revved into action and sped towards their tent. In a matter of moments, the tent had been flattened beneath its wheels and both girls were crushed under its weight. The vehicle came to a stop as its wheel pinned Terri to the ground, whose lung had collapsed and arms had broken, along with one leg, her collarbone, and several ribs. The driver exited the vehicle as Avra was shouting “leave us alone!”. Her cries, however, were ignored. The axe-wielding attacker bludgeoned Avra in the head six times before turning on Terri. He brought the weapon down again, but Terri caught it in its movement and grappled with her assailant. Moments later, he ceased his brutal attack and fled the scene in the vehicle.
Despite her crippling injuries, Terri struggled her way to the nearby road. Luckily, a car was passing at the right moment, occupied by Darlene Gervais and Bill Penhollow. In later statements, Gervais would describe Terri’s hair as ‘dripping with blood’. Terri pleaded for their help, and the three returned to the campsite to rescue Avra, who was unconscious due to her catastrophic injuries. As they were doing so, headlights glinted at the edge of the park. The group was immediately unnerved by the prospect that the attacker had returned to finish what they had started. Moments later, the vehicle disappeared out of sight, never to return. Whether the driver was the attacker or not was never determined. But with the threat now gone, Bill and Darlene quickly alerted the police to the scene. The nightmarish encounter was over, but the fight for survival was still ongoing.
The Police Investigation and Local Rumour
Thirty minutes later at around midnight, officers swarmed Cline Falls Park and the girls were whisked to the nearby St. Charles Medical Centre. Avra Goldman’s injuries were severe and required an emergency nine-hour brain surgery. Whilst medical attention was delivered, detectives who arrived at the park highlighted several key aspects of the scene. They determined that the attacking vehicle was most likely a pick-up truck, whose tracks led from the road, over the curb, down a dirt slope, and then between two picnic tables, before eventually reaching the girls’ campsite. The tracks left behind were distinctive; the two rear tyres were bald, as was one at the front. A rough sketch of the tracks was made on scene, and preliminary notes were also taken. Unfortunately, other evidence was thin on the ground. The attack had been swift, leaving no descriptions of the vehicle, no eyewitnesses, no sign of the axe, and no fingerprints. The girls’ testimony would be key, but it would take time for them to be capable of giving statements.
Despite the horrific attack, both Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman survived their encounter after significant medical intervention. Avra’s injuries prevented her from recalling anything about the attack, but Terri was able to provide snippets of information. Their attacker’s facial features had been shrouded in darkness, and she could not recall anything distinctive about the vehicle, but she was able to describe the man who loomed over her as being a ‘physically fit, young cowboy’. Unfortunately, she could not offer more information, leaving the police bereft of solid leads on which to go.
The case quickly went cold, but word of the attack had spread across town. A local newspaper ran an editorial shortly after the attacks, claiming that some people in town were being secretive and knew more than they had divulged. Bill Penhollow, in later testimonials, discussed a particularly interesting rumour that had disseminated around town. He claimed that a hatchet had been found in the Deschutes River inscribed with the initials ‘DD’. Whether this was accurate or not is unknown. But if true, the initials found on the weapon will be interesting in light of information we will shortly discuss.
In the days and months after the attacks, the local gossip mill would not die down. As it turned out, many people had a good idea of who may have been responsible. Little did they know that law enforcement officials were honing in on the same target.
Two Viable Suspects Emerge
Despite the lack of evidence, law enforcement officials still had a small suspect pool consisting of two people. The first was a man named Richard Godwin, a convicted child rapist and murderer who had been imprisoned after the attack for the horrifying murder of a five-year-old girl, whose skull he used as a candle holder. On the night of the attack, a female relative of Godwin’s was suggested to have been staying in Cline Falls Park. Godwin and this relative were suspected of being in a sexual relationship. Her potential presence in the park on the same evening would be a coincidence worth exploring. However, as much as the police believed Godwin may have been involved, Terri Jentz later stated that he did not resemble the man she recalled from that evening. His involvement, therefore, was questionable.
Godwin was not the only man detectives suspected may have been involved in the attack. When a description of the vehicle—specifically its bald tyres—was released in an attempt to gain new leads, a local woman named Janey Fraley came forward to state that her boyfriend had recently changed the tyres on his truck only days after the attack. He had also removed a toolbox from the truck’s bed. This man, as it would turn out, was known to the police. He had been the subject of frequent call-outs due to his volatile temper and violent tendencies towards his partner. There were also reports that he had attempted to kill his girlfriend the day after the Cline Falls attacks. This man was a seventeen-year-old cowboy known as Richard ‘Dick’ Damm.
Damm’s plausibility as a suspect was clear to see. His age and style matched the description Jentz provided from that night. He drove a similar vehicle to the one detectives suggested the attacker had used. His behaviour towards women was also notable. Damm also failed to provide an alibi for the night of the attack. He underwent a polygraph test during the investigation that showed inconclusive results. A follow-up test done on July 14th 1977 indicated deception, but the results were questioned after it was discovered he had been under the influence of methamphetamine at the time. Specialists in the nearby city of Salem examined the results and agreed that they indicated deception. Despite all of this, however, Damm’s involvement was never determined. Many people around town steadfastly believed he was the culprit, but he has continuously denied involvement. Could he have been the man who brutally attacked the girls on that horrifying night?
The investigation into the Cline Falls attacks did not produce any fruitful results. Both girls survived their gruesome encounter, but Avra was left with permanent vision problems as a result of the extensive head trauma she endured. No suspects could ever be pinned down, but Terri Jentz refused to allow her attack to be forgotten. Her determination to hunt down the man who brutalised her would be a journey of not months, but years.
The Hunt for the Truth
Fifteen years passed by, and Terri was still haunted by the events of that night. She had become fearful, with symptoms most likely concurrent with those of PTSD. She experienced frequent and recurrent debilitating nightmares that refused to subside. She needed closure on her experience, but none was arriving as a result of the police investigation. In 1992, she resolved to do what the police could not: she would hunt for the attacker herself. In the same year, she returned to Redmond to begin the search, though it would not be a quick or straightforward procedure.
Terri’s first venture was to scour through the police files that had been gathered since the attacks and transcripts of the interviews they had conducted. It was here that she learned the shocking truth: the police hadn’t found her attacker because they were no longer searching for him. In fact, the statute of limitations had expired in the 1980s—merely years after the attacks. Even if she discovered the identity of her assailant, he would no longer be susceptible to legal proceedings. But this did not temper her resolve. She needed to know his identity, and she would continue the search.
In 1995, Terri received the assistance of a local man named Pat Daley. By this point, she had become aware of the suspicions around Dick Damm, and Daley had previously hired him for jobs around town as well as having personal knowledge of his life. Daley arranged for Terri to see Damm in person to see if she recognised him as being the man she fought off in 1977. The two men came face-to-face whilst Terri looked on from the side. He was dressed stylishly, his clothing organised and neat. She described Damm’s face as ‘radiating meanness’. More crucially, however, she believed he had been the man who attacked her that evening. She did not confront him, but the discovery may have been the sense of closure she had been seeking.
Many more years passed, and the lives of both Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman gradually separated. Terri wanted to speak about that night with the only other person who shared her experience. Avra, however, opted to deal with her trauma by resolutely refusing to discuss the attack with Terri or anybody else. Sadly, this incompatibility led to the girls’ friendship ending.
Terri decided to write a book recounting her life after the attack in an attempt to move forward and deal with her trauma. Whilst researching her case, she discovered that all of the police files and documents gathered at the time had been lost or destroyed. Administrative procedures were the most likely cause, but Terri could not shake the suspicion that the purge may have occurred for other, unknown reasons. Nevertheless, the book was published in 2006 and is titled ‘Strange Piece of Paradise’. She now works as a successful screenwriter in Los Angeles. Avra Goldman may also be working as a doctor, although less is known of her life trajectory after the attack. Their friendship may not have survived that night, but their resolve to live carried them through the worst night of their lives.
Forty-five years have passed since an axe-wielding attacker overturned the tranquillity of Cline Falls Park. Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman survived their encounter, and their prosperity since that night is welcome to see. Sadly, however, we still have no definitive conclusion about who it was that drove up to their campsite in 1977. Local residents believed they knew who it was. Indeed, from the information we have, it’s likely many will share that same opinion. But the fact remains that the attacker’s identity was never determined. Whomever it was escaped the reach of the law in the 1980s, but the effects of their rampage have left lingering impacts. Could we, one day, learn the identity of the Cline Falls attacker and bring closure to that terrifying night?
Once again, thank you for reading! This case particularly resonated with me not only because of how insanely creepy it is, but also because I was immediately enamored with the sheer spirit both girls showed in spite of their trauma. I haven't read Terri Jentz's book yet, but it's definitely going on my to-read list.
As always, if you have any cases you'd like me to potentially cover, please feel free to send me a private message. I welcome any and all suggestions. Also, I have changed the hosting site for the various images contained within the post, as I received feedback that Dropbox links were problematic for mobile readers. I have still used Dropbox for the first link so the post has a thumbnail on mobile. If the new links have issues, please let me know.
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