Anna Hlavaka's Murderer Was Already Dead.

Anna Marie Hlavaka

She had flowing brown locks and a bright smile. She was a well-mannered young lady.

Anna was born on October, 28th, 1958.

On July 24th, 1979, 20-year-old Anna and her boyfriend as well as her sister, Rose, lived in a modest brick apartment #103, at 1811 NW Couch Street, just northwest of Portland, Oregon. Anna and Rose both worked at a nearby McDonald's.

It was about 10 p.m. when Rose got off of work. Anna had left hours earlier. Rose stood at her sister's bedroom door and called her name. After she received no response, Rose opened the door  and discovered Anna, sprawled dead in the bedroom. She had been  strangled with the electric cord from her clock radio and sexually assaulted.

Anna had no criminal record and was not involved in any criminal activity. Anna and her boyfriend were talking about getting married.

Portland detectives combed the neighborhood for witnesses. They found a co-worker who had last seen her alive that day around 5 p.m. outside her apartment. They interviewed countless suspects and kept and carefully stored forensic evidence from the scene.

Over time, there were a number of suspects but all of them were cleared. Eventually the case went cold.

In 2009, volunteer detectives working with the Cold Case Squad, asked the Oregon State Police Crime Lab to examine several pieces of evidence from the murder.

The first real breakthrough came in 2011 when a full DNA profile of an unknown male was recovered from crime scene evidence. It was a surprise, because DNA evidence can degrade over time. This made it a rare find.

From 2012 to 2016, authorities submitted DNA from eight people to try to identify the killer, but none of the DNA submissions matched the crime scene.

In May of 2018, authorities used the recently developed "forensic genealogy" that was receiving a lot of news at the time because of the arrest that month of the California man accused of being the Golden State Killer. 

The DNA on file in Anna’s case was submitted to Parabon NanoLabs and the OSP Crime Lab for testing. 

By October of 2018,  a family tree of the killer was mapped out and soon he was identified as Jerry "Animal" McFadden.

It was soon learned that McFadden had been executed in October 1999 for killing a woman. Detectives traveled down to Texas to speak with members of his family. They discovered that he had been driven to Portland by a woman he knew from his home town. The woman said she dropped him off and never heard from him again. DNA samples provided by McFadden's family were a match and detectives knew that they had their killer.

McFadden had nicked named himself the "animal."  He was born Gerald Walter McFadden on March 21st, 1948 in Haskell County Texas. He had a long criminal history and i wish they would have kept him behind bars, then all of this wouldn't have happened.

McFadde had previously been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1973 for two counts of rape. He was paroled in December 1978 then murdered Anna in 1979. Also in 1979, he was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse for kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old woman at knife point. Paroled in July 1985, having served less then five years of a 15-year sentence.
On May 4, 1986, McFadden kidnapped 20-year-old Gena Turner, 19-year-old Bryan Boone, and 18-year-old Suzanne Harrison as they took a trip to Lake Hawkins north of Tyler. McFadden raped and strangled Harrison and dumped her body in a park about 25 miles from Lake Hawkins. She was found the next day. 

The same day that Harrison was murdered, McFadden attacked a couple by the lake. They filed a police report and two days later, McFadden was arrested. 

On May 9th, the bodies of Boone and Turner were discovered, with gunshot wounds being the cause of death.

On July 9th, while McFadden was in jail awaiting a capital murder trial when he overcame Kenneth Mayfield, a jailer, and escaped from the prison in Upshur County with Rosalie Williams, another guard, as a hostage. He was arrested two days later after the biggest fugitive hunt in Texas state history. 

In August 1986, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the escape.

In July 1987, he was sentenced to death for the murder of Suzanne Harrison, Gina Turner and Bryan Boone. The Texas Appeals Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in November 1993 

In October 1999, he was executed in the Huntsville Unit by lethal injection.

Officials say McFadden's criminal exploits changed the parole qualifications in Texas.

Detectives are still working to piece together McFadden's time in the Portland area. If you lived in the area in 1979 and recognize him, contact Detective Meredith Hopper at Meredith.Hopper@portlandoregon.gov

For Anna's family, the discovery of her killer was bittersweet.