About 12:40 am, security guard Stephen Rubino discovers Franckes body on a porch of the Dome Building.
Francke apparently had tried to gain access to the building by punching out a pane of glass in the porch door. His keys and glasses were several feet away from his feet.
At about 10am., District Attorney Dale Penn of Marion County, whose office is in charge of the investigation, says no weapon has been found and there are no suspects.
Dr. Larry Lewman, the state medical examiner, says Francke was killed by a stab wound to the heart. He says there were other internal and external injuries but refuses to elaborate at the request of investigators.
Although the information is not released to the public until a year later, Francke was stabbed once through his heart and once through the bicep on his left arm; he had cuts and bruises on his hands, arms, head and face as well.
A group of corrections officers, who had been interviewed by the Statesman Journal since December about drug trafficking and working conditions at the Oregon State Penitentiary, call the newspaper within hours of Penns press conference announcing the murder.
We think we know who killed Mr. Francke, a spokesman for the group says. The officer names the penitentiary official they had been accusing of running the prison drug trafficking.
The officers have no proof of their contentions. But they are just the first of dozens of people, who over the next two years will contend that there is a connection between the murder and the corruption in the department.
Franckes wife, Bingta, his two brothers, Patrick and Kevin, and Kevins wife, Katie, later contend that they were told conflicting stories by Peterson, who was second in command at the Corrections Department.
Peterson tells them that he left the building after Francke and discovered Franckes car door open. He says he then paged Francke and began a meticulous search of the building and grounds, according to the family. He told them that he left when he couldnt find Francke.
The family later learns that the open car door was discovered by two women employees and that Peterson told police that he left before Francke and returned to look for him that night with Dave Caulley.
Peterson, who retired in 1990, as with most other Corrections Department officials, has refused to comment about the case.
The apparently contradictory stories raise initial suspicions in the Francke family that they are not being told the truth by corrections, police and the district attorneys office officials.
Kevin Francke insists that Penn and the state police were told of the murders possible connection to his brother's department in the first few days after the murder; Penn says he didnt learn of the accusation until it appeared in the press months later.