Serial Killer Documentary Podcast · Deberah Barr

It Took 30 Years To Catch Serial Killer 'The Monster'

·43 min·2 clips

Thirty-nine years later, DNA from Anna's fingernail scrapings points to Jerry Walter McFadden.

1. Serial Killer Documentary Podcast covers the 1979 Portland, Oregon murder of Anna Hawafka and the 39-year path to identifying her killer. 2. The episode centers on detectives, cold-case investigators, forensic scientist Janelle Moore, and Detective Meredith Hopper, because they preserve evidence and later use DNA to reopen the case. 3. The story asks who killed Anna Hawafka on July 24, 1979, and whether preserved crime-scene evidence can solve a case that went cold for decades. 4. Anna Hawafka writes a note saying she will go to the grocery store, which is about a five-minute walk from her apartment on West Burnside Street. 5. Lee Renick sees Anna walking near Northwest 19th Street around 4:45 p.m., and that is the last confirmed sighting before the homicide. 6. Rose returns home at 10 p.m., uses the building manager's key, and finds Anna dead in apartment 103 with a radio cord around her neck. 7. Forensic scientists find fingerprints throughout the apartment and scrapings from under Anna's fingernails, but 1979 technology cannot identify the attacker. 8. Detectives interview David Craker, who says he spent the evening at the Poor House tavern drinking beer and playing pool after work. 9. Roy Ostergaard, the owner of the concrete company tied to a scrap of paper in Anna's belongings, is checked out and ruled out. 10. Mark Sinotto admits he shared cocaine with Anna in his car outside the Elias grocery store, but he is also eliminated as a suspect. 11. David Boardman, who lives in the Tudor Arms and hangs around McDonald's, is described as strange and is investigated closely. 12. Alan Baer sends police photographs and writes that Anna came on to him, giving detectives another lead to test. 13. Mick Larson, David's fishing friend, also provides a polygraph and is not tied to the killing. 14. Robert Arneson appears in the case through mailed photographs and graffiti references, but investigators do not keep him as a live suspect. 15. In 2011, Oregon State Police forensic scientist Janelle Moore finds an unknown male DNA profile in the preserved evidence from Anna's body. 16. In 2018, Parabon Nano Labs uses genetic genealogy and finds family connections that point to Jerry Walter McFadden as the source of that DNA. 17. McFadden's record includes burglary, destruction of property, rape convictions, prison sentences, parole, and a 1999 lethal injection in Texas. 18. Detective Hopper gets confirmation from McFadden's children, Jerry Jr. and Rhonda, after samples from the family match the crime-scene profile. 19. The episode has a procedural, investigative tone, with timeline reconstruction, police interviews, and forensic explanation driving the narrative. 20. Listeners who like cold cases, DNA genealogy, and Portland true crime will get the most from it, while people avoiding detailed homicide cases may skip it.

As heard by us

A patient Portland true crime case built on suspicion, dead ends, and a forensic answer.

A hot July afternoon in Portland sets up a careful, hard-edged case: Anna leaves on a grocery run, is last seen walking toward McDonald's, and never comes home.

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Why you'd press play

You want a decades-long hunt that starts with a vanished five-minute walk to the grocery store.

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