Clarence “Charly” Wayne Richards, 24, was born in Colorado Springs. He had lived in Vancouver, Washington since 1984. He graduated from Mountain View High School there, taking a vocational course focusing on the culinary arts. Charly always wanted to be a cook.
Charly joined the US Army in 1987. Upon completion of his tour of duty, he returned to Vancouver and took a job in the kitchen of the local Veterans Administration hospital. Charly studied culinary arts at Clark College and served in the Army Reserve. His long term plan was to become a chef for the VA.
In mid 1992, Charly was assigned temporary duty to help out at the Portland, Oregon VA hospital for two months. On August 21, 1992, Charly left the hospital at 8 p.m. after his workday was complete. At 8:35 PM witnesses saw his black Ford Ranger 4X4 nick another car’s fender as it manuevered for a parking place and then drive off. They noted there were two people in the truck. The one on the passenger side was a man with long, dark hair.
Charly didn’t come home that night and didn’t show up for work the next day. On August 31, a bowhunter found Charly’s decomposed body in the Thousand Acres area north of Interstate 84 and east of the Sandy River. His body had multiple stab wounds to the chest. Charly’s truck had been found in Portland on August 22nd.
His sister, Tammie Hagans of Escobeto, CA said “Charly didn’t have an enemy in the world. You can imagine if he was in bad situations all the time. But he was very cleancut.” Charly’s survivors also included his parents, Eleanor Richards of San Diego and James Richards of Nebraska; a brother, Donald Jamison of Milo, Iowa; sisters Julie Chetnik of Thornton, CO, Kimberly Richards of Lakewood, CO, Judy Clark of Denver, CO.