http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs..../804130336/1001Investigators take new look at '70s cold case
Teen runaway's body found in River Road ditch
RUTH LIAO
Statesman Journal
April 13, 2008
What happened to Tina Michelle Migis during the the last few days of her life is uncertain, but the details must have been grisly.
Migis was a 17-year-old runaway who last was seen hitchhiking along Interstate 5. Her body was found Oct. 7, 1975, just north of Brooklake Road NE — nude except for brown, calf-length lace-up boots. Her severed head was found the next morning, about five miles away, by a farmer plowing his field on Labish Center Road.
Investigators at the time determined that Migis had been strangled.
Now, more than 30 years after her death, investigators are taking a new look at the homicide, hoping to find a detail, a fact, something, that will close the case and possibly make someone answer for the crime.
"I think this girl deserves a better shake than what she got," said Don McMullen, a volunteer member of Marion County Cold Case Squad, which reopened the case recently.
The victim's final days
Migis was petite — about 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 105 pounds — and had black hair that grew past her shoulders. But most people remembered her for her missing upper left front tooth, McMullen said. She had a bridge, but lost it months before her death.
Investigators said her case remains a tough one because she was so transient and she had no obvious ties to Marion County. Her family lived in Portland, and she had been a chronic runaway since she was 12. Migis often would give people, especially authorities, fictitious names and dates of birth.
"She was a runway and practically surviving hand-to-mouth," McMullen said.
What is known of her last days is spotty, according to investigators.
The teen had been reported as a runaway for about five weeks and was staying with a family and then a man in Yreka, Calif. When police stopped the two during a traffic stop, the officer realized she was a runaway and notified youth authorities.
Soon after, they called her family in Portland and gave Migis a one-way Greyhound ticket back to Oregon.
About 1 p.m. Oct. 3, 1975, she boarded the bus, which arrived without her that evening in Portland.
Investigators think Migis traveled as far as Roseburg because of a phone call she made. What she did for the next three days is unclear.
A hitchhiker later reported seeing Migis in the Eugene area on Oct. 6, three days after she got on the bus. The hitchhiker briefly traveled with her on Interstate 5, then was let off after he realized they were headed in the opposite direction that he wanted to travel.
The hitchhiker told authorities that Migis had climbed into an older, dirty green or blue van, possibly a mid-1960s Ford or Chevrolet. The van's driver was described as a white man in his mid-20s, about 6 feet tall, 165 to 175 pounds with light brown hair and a mustache.
Another man was sitting in the van's rear, described only as a thin man with shoulder-length black hair. Investigators do not know whether he knew the driver or was another hitchhiker.
No clothes ever were found, but the hitchhiker described Migis as wearing a heavy-knit, cream-colored sweater with a two-inch horizontal stripe and possibly blue bell-bottom pants.
It was in the afternoon of Oct. 7 that a school boy discovered her body in the 9700 block of River Road NE. The boy just saw part of the torso and, thinking it was another child, immediately ran home and told his father, who called police.
What residents remember
Tonya Harbison grew up in that rural neighborhood and was a freshman at Gervais Union High School at the time. She remembers seeing police everywhere as she rode the school bus home. Her family home was next to where the body was found, and police used her house as a command center.
Investigators could tell that the body belonged to a teenage girl, and Harbison wondered if it was someone she knew.
"That made me instantly freak out," Harbison said.
Harbison, who now lives in Aumsville, remembers that her family was awakened by the sound of squealing tires about 2 a.m. the night before the body was found. She still doesn't know if that was related to the case.
Harbison thinks reopening the investigation now, with a fresh start and advances in technology, could bring a resolution.
"People just can't get away with stuff like that," Harbison said.
Harbison's father, Richard Pfannkuch, said the drainage ditch where the body was found was much deeper than it is now, and would not have been visible from the road. Pfannkuch was glad to hear Migis' case was reopened.
"Nothing's ever come of it. Whoever did it, if he's still around, he needs to be prosecuted, that's for sure," Pfannkuch said. "It was a gruesome thing to do, all the way around."
Following the case
Comparing the case to circumstances today is difficult, but the cold-case investigators said law enforcement and youth services have changed dramatically since the 1970s.
"Today, if she was a runaway, she would not be given a bus ticket," said Jeff Zens, another volunteer member of the cold-case team.
Zens also noted that access to information is light years beyond what technology would have allowed in 1975.
The "flower child" times of that decade also made it difficult to track runaways and people who sought shelter with communes or other fringe groups, Zens said.
"She was in the wind most of the time, and she associated with people who led the same kind of lifestyle," Zens said.
McMullen said the cold-case investigators hope someone will come forward with information.
"She was a victim waiting to happen, sadly. Truly a forgotten human being," McMullen said. "And now we're getting a glimpse of some purpose in her life."
rliao@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6941