CA - Unidentified & possible missing victims of Randy Kraft, 1971-1983

[AkitasAreLovely]

Marion County John Doe 1980, a very likely victim of Randy Kraft and the possible alias of Portland Elk, has their namus down: https://[link removed]/wiki/Marion_County_John_Doe_(1980)

Also DoeNetwork said they were identified as well.

 

[AkitasAreLovely]

Rest in peace, Larry Parks.

https://[link removed]/wiki/Larry_Parks

Now, it looks like there are only two suspected unidentified victims of Kraft left who had been located. Both Wilmington John Does found in February and April of 1973.

 

[Warwick1991]

I know that it was discussed a year ago, but I was thinking about the .22 caliber Winchester rifle found in Kraft's possession. I think this is a "souvenir" taken from a victim. These kinds of .22 caliber rifles were used for casual target shooting or on small game. They wouldn't have anything to do with Kraft's military service, and reading about Kraft, wouldn't be the type of item he'd buy, IMO. In addition, many older .22 rifles made in the US had no serial numbers. Many such rifles were "take down" models, with a screw on the stock that allowed easy disassembly for travel. Serial numbers were required after the Gun Control Act of 1968, but there were thousands of .22 caliber rifles in circulation without one.

My thought is the rifle was one of the possessions of a hitchhiker that Kraft picked up, probably disassembled for travel. The initials EMD were on the rifle. Those initials could be the initials of a former owner, or perhaps a family member of the owner. JMO

 

[Warwick1991]

I thought about the rifle, because there's no identified victim with the initials EMD, and I have not found any firearms manufacturer that made .22 caliber rifles at that time named EMD. Perhaps Wayne Dukette had a family member with those initials.

 

[ys13]

A while ago, I came across two articles about David Michael Sandt who was found stabbed to death with his pants pulled down in the yard of a vacant house near the intersection of Second St and Kennebec in Long Beach on January 13, 1975. He was about the same age as Randy Kraft's first known victim, Wayne Joseph Dukette. So far, I have been unable to learn if Mr. Sandt's homicide was ever solved.
View attachment 81106View attachment 81107
The location of his body was only a few blocks from where Randy Kraft was living at the time and David Sandt's homicide occurred between John Leras ("skates") and Craig Jonaites ("golden sails"). Interestingly, the Social Security Death Index states that David Michael Sandt's Social Security number was issued in Iowa. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V3XL-V47

You sir are a genius. David Michael Sandt is considered to be a likely Kraft victim, with him most likely being "Hara-Kiri" on Krafts scorecard.

 

[littlemissdoe]

I know that it was discussed a year ago, but I was thinking about the .22 caliber Winchester rifle found in Kraft's possession. I think this is a "souvenir" taken from a victim. These kinds of .22 caliber rifles were used for casual target shooting or on small game. They wouldn't have anything to do with Kraft's military service, and reading about Kraft, wouldn't be the type of item he'd buy, IMO. In addition, many older .22 rifles made in the US had no serial numbers. Many such rifles were "take down" models, with a screw on the stock that allowed easy disassembly for travel. Serial numbers were required after the Gun Control Act of 1968, but there were thousands of .22 caliber rifles in circulation without one.

My thought is the rifle was one of the possessions of a hitchhiker that Kraft picked up, probably disassembled for travel. The initials EMD were on the rifle. Those initials could be the initials of a former owner, or perhaps a family member of the owner. JMO

Was it EMD? Or EDM? Because Edward Daniel Moore was a victim of his.

 

[Warwick1991]

Was it EMD? Or EDM? Because Edward Daniel Moore was a victim of his.

My information is from an earlier post. It is possible that someone scrambled the order of the letters, and that it is really EDM.

 

[potatopotato]

Thought it might be useful to make an updated list of unidentifieds/unconnecteds--looks like the last list was posted in 2024. This is probably not going to be completely accurate, and I'm certainly repeating points/observations that already appear in the forum. I've left off ones that seem to have strong consensus on connection (such as David Michael Sandt with #3). I recall there were some details/discussion about likely IDs for these, but I realized compiling all the notes/thoughts on these together would make this post really long, and I'm not confident in my ability to accurately add quote attributions. I've left it only to my own observations re: likely years/details in the coded references that I don't remember seeing, but again, VERY likely that this has been said before.

A quick note: It seems that up until 20 and 21 (the murders of Robert Avila and Raymond Davis), most of these are early 1970s events. I would assume if we were to take the numbering as the order in which he actively wrote them down (obviously not a match to when deaths were), that anything before Avila and Davis is likely to be between 1971-1975? This guess somewhat matches the latter part of the list, where there are a few early victims but mostly seem to move forward between the late 1970s until he was caught, though not in sequence.

• 2. Angel
• 6. Marine Down
  • I saw a suggestion that this is Oral Stuart, since it may make more sense for Michael Ray Schlicht to be "Iowa"?
• 7. Van Driveway
  • ETA: could be Van Nuys? Just thinking.
• 8. 2 in 1 MV to PL
• 12. LB Marina
  • ETA: just thought--saw a NAMUS listing that mentions a "Leeward Bay Marina". An alternate initialing (thought less likely than Long Beach)
• 14. Diabetic
• 16. Portland
  • Later Portland victims were referred to as "Portland _____". I feel like its more likely that this was before 1980 based on that (otherwise, why would "Portland" be sufficient by itself as a description for Kraft?).
• 18. User
• 31. 2 in 1 Hitch
• 35. Front of Ripples
• 41. Carpenter
• 43. MC Dump HB Short
  • based on the note for Donald Crisel (40), it would be a Marine and related to Huntington Beach, wearing shorts (unless its height-related). "Dump" either modifies "HB" as in "dumped in HB" or refers to a garbage dump in some way--picked up from? Likely after 1975 at the very least, based on the position on the list.
• 47. Oxnard
  • The victims in this part of the list are mostly 1978-1982, so possibly narrowed down that way.
• 55. MC Plants
• 59. Oil
• 61. What You Got

SPECIAL CASE: 58. England vs. 30. 76
The unidentified man originally given "76" based on where his body was found was identified as Keith Jackson of England. As stated by earlier users, either he's on the list twice, or just once. If it was just once, and the other refers to someone else, based on how the years connected to identified victims on the list line up, I feel that England would make sense--he was found in 1979, and the listings above or below fall in that very late 1970s-1983ish timeframe. However, since #30 is listed after Avila and Davis, It could still work.