It wasn’t until April 2025 that thanks to advances in forensic genealogy the pieces finally fell into place.
Forensic Genealogy Leads to Breakthrough
In 2024, an investigator from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Cold Case Unit reached out to Oregon State Police (OSP) and offered assistance. A genetic profile of the John Doe was created using a preserved blood sample from the original crime scene. That DNA led detectives to Parks’ surviving relatives, who submitted their own samples to confirm the match.
“Until his identification last month, the circumstances of his disappearance were unknown to the Parks family,” OSP noted.
Parks had reportedly lost contact with his family in 1979, and was last seen in Pensacola, Florida, before making his way to Oregon.
The Scorecard Killer: Randy Kraft
Randy Kraft was arrested in 1983 in Orange County, California, and became known as the Scorecard Killer due to a coded list of victims he kept—what investigators described as a chilling “scorecard” of his murders.
