Geraldine Spencer Toohey; Gladys May Hensley; Janice Marie Dickinson.Photo: Eugene Police Department (3)
The serial slayings began in Eugene, Ore., on June 5, 1986, when police and paramedics responded to an apartment and discovered the body of 62-year-old Gladys May Hensley. An apartment employee had called the police after Hensley had not been seen for a few days. Police determined that she had most likely been killed in the early morning hours of June 4.
Two weeks later, on June 19, the nude body of 33-year-old Janice Marie Dickinson was found behind a Eugene car dealership. She was sexually assaulted.
Almost two years later, on Feb. 28, 1988, Geraldine Spencer Toohey, 73, was found dead in her home. Her killer broke into her apartment and then sexually assaulted and murdered her.
In 2016, the department tried Snapshot Phenotyping, which uses physical characteristics of individuals based on DNA information to find a suspect. They received more than 100 tips but none of them panned out.
Years later, with the help of Parabon Nano Labs offering genetic genealogy services, police identified four potential suspects.
“After extensive follow-up, and the analysis of additional evidence, the suspect was identified as John Charles Bolsinger,” police said.
John Charles Bolsinger.Eugene Police Department (2)
However, Bolsinger committed suicide in Springfield, Ore., on March 23, 1988.
According to police, Bolsinger was arrested for an unrelated murder in Salt Lake City in 1980. He served a five-year prison sentence and was paroled on March 7, 1986, almost three months before the first murder of Hensley occurred.
On Sept. 26, 1986, between the murders of Dickinson and Toohey, Bolsinger was arrested for burglary in Springfield. The victim in the case told police she was at home and having trouble falling asleep when she heard her dog “making strange noises in the kitchen, so she went to investigate,” according to the press release.
“She saw a suspect peering through her kitchen window,” the release stated. “She saw the window slide open and then the suspect reached inside and removed a brace in the slider. She ran back to the living room and called 911.”
Police said the victim was still on the phone when the intruder walked into the living room, stood still for a moment and then walked towards her.
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“She started screaming as the suspect tried to pull the phone from her hand,” according to the release. “She started striking the suspect with the phone and a flashlight. The suspect fled through the kitchen window. He left behind a down vest and paring knife.”
Bolsinger was arrested and claimed to police he knocked on her door a few times and walked away when nobody answered.
“He claimed to have memory loss when questioned further,” the release states.
Bolsinger was sentenced to five years in prison but was released on Dec. 8, 1987. Three days later, he enrolled in community college. Almost three months later, he killed Toohey, police say.
Soon after Toohey’s 1988 killing, on March 5, Oregon State Police released a sketch of the suspect.
On March 23, Bolsinger was found dead in his Springfield apartment.
Anyone with information about the slayings is asked to contact Detective Jennifer Curry at 541-682-5166 or jcurry@eugene-or.gov.
source: people.com
