LANE COUNTY, Ore. — The Lane County Sheriff's Office is reporting on Thursday night that they were able to solve a cold case from back in 1977, identifying a man who killed two students from North Eugene High School.

The man has been identified as Ronald Albert Shroy, who reportedly took his own life in February of 2021 after an alleged domestic violence incident in Arizona. The two victims of the original crime back in 1977 were 16-year-old Lliana Gay Adank and 17-year-old Eric Shawn Goldstrand.

This is the release that LCSO put out on Thursday night:

On Monday, June 9, 1977, sixteen-year-old Lliana Gay Adank and seventeen-year-old Eric Shawn Goldstrand, both North Eugene High School students, went to the Broken Bowl picnic grounds at Fall Creek, for an afternoon picnic and fishing outing. When the couple failed to return home, their parents notified the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. LCSO personnel located the female victim at the secluded picnic area. The male victim was located in the nearby brush a few hours later. The female victim had been sexually assaulted and both victims had been shot to death.

Since the killings, detectives have worked to solve the case. Initially, the crime scene was searched and processed, area searches were completed and roadblocks were put in place. Over the years, numerous interviews were done, polygraphs were completed and numerous firearms were tested and bullets forensically analyzed. Latent DNA was obtained at the crime scene and analyzed utilizing the technology available at the time. Latent fingerprints from the crime scene were also analyzed and compared with the national fingerprint database. No matches were found. These investigative efforts afforded few leads. However, after more than four decades, the suspect’s DNA was re-submitted in July of 2020 for analysis utilizing modernized genealogical technology. As a result of that analysis, a former Lane County resident was identified and later confirmed to be the perpetrator.

Ronald Albert Shroy’s DNA linked him to the crimes. Shroy was twenty-three years old and a Lane County resident at the time of the crimes. Shroy moved away from Oregon in the early 1980s. He was discovered to have been living in Mesa, Arizona since 2008. As investigators were closing in and making final preparations to present the matter to a grand jury, arrest, and charge him, Shroy was involved in an unrelated domestic violence incident and took his own life. (Feb 24, 2021)

The Lane County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Team remains dedicated to investigating and solving cases such as this. Detective Kurt Wuest was first assigned to this case in 1983. Now, 38 years later as a volunteer cold case investigator for the Lane County Sheriff’s Office, he hopes to bring closure to the families of Lliana Adank and Eric Goldstrand.