On the morning of June 23rd, 2010, Eric Lawrence loaded a tent, sleeping bag, and backpack with 3 days worth of provisions into the trunk of his blue Honda Civic sedan. The 27-year-old software engineer planned to spend the weekend alone on the trails of the Cascade Mountains in Mount Hood National Forest.
It was his way of taking a break from the office routine at the Portland IT company, where he had worked for the past four years. Lawrence lived alone in a small apartment in the Hawthorne neighborhood. His neighbors knew him as a quiet man who rarely socialized with others, but was always polite. On weekends, he often disappeared for days at a time, going on hikes in the surrounding forests.
Friends from college said that these trips helped him cope with stress. Eric never took anyone with him, preferring solitude. That Thursday evening, he called his mother, Linda Lawrence, who lived in Seattle. The conversation lasted about 20 minutes. Eric told her about his plans for the weekend and promised to call on Sunday evening when he returned home.
His mother later recalled that her son sounded normal with no indication of any problems or concerns. He mentioned that he was going to try a new route he had found on a hiking forum on the internet. On Friday morning, Eric stopped at a gas station near his home where he filled up his tank and bought some energy bars.
The cashier remembered him because the young man asked for directions to Route 26, which leads to the mountains. The video camera recorded the time of purchase, 8:43 a.m. This was the last recording of Erica alive. The drive to the start of the Timberline Trail took about 2 hours.

Eric parked his car in a small parking lot for tourists next to an information stand with maps of the area and safety warnings. The parking lot was located at an altitude of 1,200 m above sea level. The weather was changeable that day. The sun was shining in the morning, but clouds began to gather around noon.
According to the plan, Eric was to walk about 15 km along the main trail, then turn onto a side path leading to a small lake where he planned to set up camp. The route was not considered difficult, but it required good physical fitness due to the elevation changes. The trail passed through a dense coniferous forest where mainly fur and spruce trees grew.
In some places, the trees were so densely spaced that even during the day, it was dim under the canopy. On Saturday morning, when Eric was supposed to check in as usual, the phone was silent. His mother tried to call him several times during the day, but the calls were immediately switched to voicemail.
By Sunday evening, Linda Lawrence was seriously concerned. She contacted the manager of the company where her son worked, but they said that Eric had taken the weekend off until Monday. On Monday morning, when Eric did not show up for work and did not answer his phone, his mother contacted the Portland police.
The officer on duty explained that an adult could be absent for up to 48 hours without explanation before being officially declared missing. However, considering that Lawrence had gone into the mountains alone and had not been in contact for more than 3 days, it was decided to begin a search immediately.
The Clackamus County Rescue Team went to the location where Eric’s car was parked on Tuesday morning. The Honda Civic was where its owner had left it. The locks were locked and the keys were missing. There were no signs of struggle or coercion inside the car. A jacket was lying on the back seat, which Eric had apparently decided not to take with him due to the warm weather.
The initial search was conducted along the main trail. A group of eight rescuers with dogs followed the route Lawrence was believed to have taken. A mile from the parking lot, they found bootprints in the wet ground near a small stream. The size and tread pattern matched the shoes Eric’s mother said he usually wore on hikes.
Another half kilometer further, the searchers found Lawrence’s backpack hanging from a pine branch about 2 m above the ground. The backpack was open, but all his personal belongings were still inside. A change of underwear, socks, a flashlight, a compass, a map of the area, two energy bars, and a half empty bottle of water.
His sleeping bag and small camping tent lay nearby on the ground, neatly folded, as if someone had intended to set up camp in that very spot. The strange thing about the situation was that the place where the items were found was not suitable for spending the night. The forest floor was uneven with lots of roots and rocks.
An experienced hiker would never have chosen such a place to camp, especially considering that there was a convenient clearing just a few hundred meters further along the trail. In addition, the backpack was hanging too high for someone to have hung it there accidentally or to protect it from animals. The search continued throughout the week. Volunteers from local hiking clubs, about 40 people in total, joined the operation.
They combed the forest within a 5 km radius of where the items were found, checking ravines, rocky outcrops, and thickets of bushes. A Coast Guard helicopter made several flights over the area, but the dense canopy of trees made it impossible to see anything on the ground. The search dogs lost Eric’s trail about a 100 m from where the tent had been.
The trail ended at a large boulder covered with moss. Beyond that, there were no bootprints, broken branches, or other signs that a person had passed through this section of the forest. It seemed as if Lawrence had simply vanished into thin air. Over 2 weeks of searching, an area of more than 20 square kilometers was surveyed.
All the streams and small rivers where the body could have been carried away by the current were checked. Several caves and crevices between the rocks were explored. Local residents were questioned, but no one had seen a young man in hiking clothes during that period. The search was officially suspended a month after Eric Lawrence’s disappearance.
The case was transferred to the missing person’s investigation department of the district prosecutor’s office. The family continued their own search for several more months, hiring private investigators and organizing groups of volunteers, but to no avail. Eric’s mother, Linda Lawrence, could not accept that her son had simply disappeared without a trace. She continued to visit Oregon every few months, putting up posters with Eric’s photo in nearby towns, interviewing gas station, store, and campground employees.

The posters offered a $5,000 reward for any information that would help find her son, dead or alive. Linda contacted other families of missing hikers and studied statistics on disappearances in national forests. She learned that about 10 people go missing in the Cascade Mountains every year. Most are found within the first few days, usually injured or lost. But about two or three cases a year remain unsolved forever.
A year after her son’s disappearance, Linda hired private investigator Robert Clark, a former Oregon State Police investigator. Clark agreed to take on the case, although he warned that the chances of finding Eric alive were virtually zero. Over the course of a month, he retraced the entire route, interviewed all the Forest Service employees who were on duty at the time, and studied the meteorological data for June 2010.
Clark noticed several details that had not been given proper attention before. First, the backpack was hanging from a branch at exactly the height that a person about 180 cm tall could reach. Eric was 174 cm tall. Second, the tent and sleeping bag were folded too neatly for someone who was just going to spend the night in the woods. It seemed as if someone else had packed the things.
The detective also found out that a team of loggers was working in the forest at that time harvesting wood for a private company. They did not have an official permit to cut down trees, which explained why their presence had not been recorded by the Forest Service. Clark tried to find the members of this crew, but it turned out that most of them were illegal immigrants who worked without documents and after completing their work had left in an unknown direction.
The only one he managed to find was Carlos Menddees, a 38-year-old man who worked as a truck driver transporting the felled trees. Menddees agreed to testify only after he was assured that the information would not be used against him in matters of immigration status. He said that the crew had been working in the forest from mid June to early August 2010.
According to Mendes, the sawmill was located about 3 km from where Eric’s belongings were found. It was a temporary facility consisting of several barracks for workers, a tool shed, and the sawmill itself. The foreman was an American named Michael whose last name Menddees did not remember. This man hired workers, paid them in cash, and demanded that they not communicate with outsiders.
Menddees described Michael as a tall man in his mid-40s with dark hair and a scar on his left cheek. He always wore work boots and a denim jacket, even in hot weather. The workers feared him because he could fire anyone without explanation and not pay them for the days they had worked.

Several times Menddees saw Michael beat his subordinates for minor offenses. At the end of June, Menddees noticed that the foreman’s mood had changed significantly. Michael became even more aggressive and suspicious. He forbade the workers from straying more than 100 meters from the camp, established night watch duties, and ordered no one to respond if someone shouted in the forest.
When asked about the reasons for such precautions, Michael replied that unwanted guests had appeared in the forest who could cause problems for the entire operation. Around the same time, the workers began to notice strange things. Metal chains that had not been there before appeared on the trees around the camp.
Michael explained that they were for lifting heavy logs, but the chains were hanging too high and in places unsuitable for work. In addition, several sledgehammers and axes disappeared from the tool shed even though all the workers were present and no one had taken the tools without permission. One night, Menddees woke up to strange noises. Someone was moving among the trees near the barracks, breaking branches and dragging something heavy along the ground.
The noises continued for about an hour, then subsided. In the morning, Menddees noticed deep furrows in the ground as if someone had been dragging a large bag or a body. The furrows led from the camp deep into the forest and disappeared among the thick ferns. When Menddees told the other workers about this, they advised him to keep quiet and not ask unnecessary questions.
One of them, an elderly Mexican man named Pedro, whispered that he had seen Michael talking to someone in the forest late at night. The voices were quiet, but he could hear the second person begging for mercy. The conversation ended with a dull thud followed by silence. A few days after this incident, Michael gathered all the workers and said that anyone who tried to leave work without his permission or told anyone about the sawmill would hang from a tree as a scarecrow for the others.
He pointed toward the forest and added that he already had one such example that would help the others better understand the rules. Menddees did not know what exactly the foreman meant, but the atmosphere in the camp became so tense that the workers were afraid to even talk to each other.
Everyone tried to do their jobs in silence and not attract Michael’s attention. Work in the forest continued for another month, after which the sawmill was shut down, and the workers were taken to the city and dismissed without explanation. Clark passed this information on to the police, but without concrete evidence and accurate information about Michael’s identity. The investigation could not proceed any further.
The detective tried to find traces of the temporary sawmill in the forest, but over the past year, all the buildings had been dismantled, and the site had been cleared so thoroughly that there were no signs of human activity left. The search for Eric Lawrence gradually died down.
His mother continued to hope, but with each passing month, the likelihood of finding her son alive became slimmer. The case remained officially open, but no active investigative measures were taken. In the police archives, it was listed as a disappearance under unclear circumstances, which essentially meant an admission that the person was most likely dead, but that it was impossible to prove. Two years passed.
Linda Lawrence moved from Seattle to Portland to be closer to the place where her son had disappeared. She got a job at a local charity that helped families of missing persons. Every weekend, she continued to drive to the mountains, hoping to find at least some clue that would explain what had happened to Eric.
October 2013 was particularly rainy. The hunting season started later than usual due to the bad weather, but by the end of the month, conditions had improved. Brothers Tom and Jerry Harrison, local hunters with 20 years of experience, went to familiar places in search of deer.

They chose a section of forest about 5 km from the place where Eric disappeared, although at that time they did not yet know about this connection. On the morning of October 28th, the Harrison brothers entered the forest before dawn. They knew the area like the back of their hands and moved along the barely visible paths that the deer used to reach their watering holes.
Tom was the older of the two, 42 years old, and worked as a mechanic at a local auto repair shop. Jerry was 39 and worked at a sawmill in a nearby town. Both were experienced hunters and never returned home empty-handed. Around 7 in the morning, they stopped in a small clearing to eat breakfast and decide on their route.
Jerry took out a thermos of coffee while Tom studied the map, marking the places where they had seen deer tracks the day before. The weather was clear but cold with the temperature not rising above 5° C. The trees had already shed most of their leaves, making the forest more visible. They decided to split up to cover a larger area. Tom headed north toward the mountainside where there were several salt licks for wild animals.
Jerry headed west toward a dense spruce forest where deer usually took shelter during the day. They agreed to meet in 3 hours at the same place. Jerry had gone about a mile into the forest when he noticed something unusual. Between the tall fur trees about 50 meters away from him, he could see a dark silhouette that did not match the usual outlines of trunks or branches.
The silhouette hung in the air at a considerable height and swayed slightly in the light breeze. As he got closer, Jerry realized that he was looking at human remains. The skeleton hung upside down, suspended by heavy metal chains from a thick branch of an old spruce tree. The chains were fastened around the ankles and the arms were tied behind the back with a thin rope that had almost completely rotted away over the years.
The height of the suspension was about 5 m from the ground. Patches of clothing and skin still clung to the bones. Jerry immediately contacted his brother by radio and asked him to come to the site of the discovery. Tom arrived 20 minutes later and confirmed that they were dealing with human remains. The brothers did not touch the body, realizing that this was a crime scene.
They photographed the find on their cell phone and immediately contacted the emergency services. The first sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene an hour later. Senior deputy sheriff David Miller examined the scene and called in a team of forensic experts and photographers. The area within a 100 meter radius of the discovery site was cordoned off with yellow tape.
A thorough investigation of the crime scene began. It took several hours to remove the body from the tree. Experts used a special ladder and lifting equipment to avoid damaging the evidence. The chains from which the skeleton hung were homemade, welded from thick metal links. The fastenings showed signs of prolonged exposure to the weather but remained strong.
The rope on the hands had almost completely decomposed with only small fragments remaining. Upon examination of the skull, the medical examiner found multiple fractures in the occipital and parietal regions. The nature of the injuries indicated blows with a heavy blunt object, possibly a sledgehammer or large hammer.

Some of the bones in the hands and ribs were also broken, which could have happened either before or after death as a result of exposure to the weather and the passage of time. Some of the clothing had been preserved. Remnants of jeans, a t-shirt, and hiking boots were identified. A waterproof watch, a wallet with documents, and several coins were found in the pockets of the jeans.
The documents were damaged by moisture, but the name on the driver’s license was still legible. Eric Daniel Lawrence, date of birth, May 23rd, 1983. The news of the discovery was immediately forwarded to the missing person’s investigation department. Eric Lawrence’s case was taken out of the archives, and a new investigation began, this time as a murder case. Eric’s mother arrived at the scene the next day.
Official identification was made using dental records which matched the remains found. The place where the body was found was about 4 km from the section of forest where Eric’s belongings had been found 3 years earlier. There was no direct road or path between the two points. The road passed through dense forest with numerous ravines and rocky areas.
This meant that the body had been transported there deliberately with considerable effort. The tree on which the skeleton hung grew in a small hollow surrounded by dense thicket of shrubs. The place was hidden from prying eyes on all sides which explained why the body had not been found for so long. The hunters stumbled upon it by accident while chasing a wounded deer that had run in that direction.
Experts determined that the chains and method of suspension required the involvement of at least two people. It would have been extremely difficult to lift the body of an adult man to such a height alone, especially given the uneven terrain and lack of access roads. This indicated that the murder was planned rather than spontaneous. Analysis of the skull injuries showed that death was caused by multiple blows to the head.
The nature of the fractures indicated the use of a heavy tool with a flat surface such as a sledgehammer or a large hammer. The first blow was struck from behind to the occipital region, indicating that the victim did not see the attacker. The pathologist determined that Eric was 27 years old at the time of death, which corresponded to his age at the time of his disappearance.
No other injuries were found except for the bone fractures. The condition of the bones indicated that the body had been in the tree for about 3 years, which also coincided with the time frame of the disappearance. The area around the site was combed with metal detectors in search of the murder weapon or other clues.
Several metal objects were found about 30 m from the tree. Old nails, a piece of rusty wire, and a broken hammer handle. The handle was sent for examination, but no traces of blood or other biological material were found on it. Investigators returned to Carlos Menddees’s testimony, which he had given to a private detective two years earlier.
Now, his story about strange noises in the forest, missing sledgehammers, and threats from Foreman Michael took on new meaning. Active work began to establish the identity and whereabouts of the man who ran the illegal sawmill. Menddees was called in to give further testimony. This time he was more forthcoming, realizing the seriousness of the situation.
He recalled additional details about Michael’s appearance and behavior during the period of Eric’s disappearance. According to Menddees, the foreman disappeared from the camp for 2 days, around the time that, according to the investigation’s calculations, Lawrence was killed.
The search for Michael was complicated by the fact that most of the workers at the illegal sawmill were undocumented immigrants who had dispersed in unknown directions after completing their work. Many of them were afraid of contact with law enforcement because of their status. Nevertheless, investigators managed to find two more witnesses who confirmed Menddees’s testimony. Pedro Gonzalez, an elderly worker mentioned in Menddees’s testimony, agreed to meet with investigators only after being assured of complete confidentiality.

The meeting took place at the office of an immigration lawyer in Portland. Gonzalez turned out to be a nervous 63-year-old man who spoke poor English and gave his testimony through an interpreter. According to him, Michael was indeed a cruel man who intimidated workers and used physical violence for the slightest offenses.
Gonzalez recalled that in late June 2010, the foreman brought a young white man in hiking clothes to the camp. The stranger was tied up and clearly frightened. Michael forced all the workers to look at the prisoner and said that this was an example of what happens to people who know too much about their operation.
The captive was kept in an old metal container that was used as a tool shed. The container was located at the edge of the camp next to the generator. Gonzalez heard screams and moans coming from there several times, especially at night. When he tried to get closer, Michael chased him away, threatening to fire him. On the third night, the scream stopped. In the morning, Gonzalez noticed that Michael and two other workers had pulled something heavy wrapped in tarpollen out of the container. They loaded their cargo onto a cart and took it into the forest. They did not return until
evening without the cart or the cargo. Michael forbade anyone from approaching the container and ordered them never to talk about what they had seen. The third witness was Ricardo Vasquez, a 28-year-old man who worked as a sawmill operator. He confirmed Gonzalez’s testimony and added some important details.
According to him, the captive was about the same age as himself, thin with dark hair. He was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and brown hiking boots. Vasquez also recalled that Michael had a habit of photographing his achievements with an old digital camera. The foreman boasted that he kept a kind of diary to help him remember important moments.
After the captive disappeared, Michael took out his camera several times and showed the workers some pictures, saying that he had proof of their silence. This information gave the investigation a new direction. If Michael had indeed photographed his crimes, then the pictures or the camera itself must have been preserved somewhere.
Investigators began searching all possible places where the foreman could have stored evidence or personal belongings. The search for Michael’s identity was complicated by the lack of accurate information about his surname and documents. Witnesses remembered only his first name and a general description of his appearance.
Investigators turned to the archives of companies involved in logging in Oregon, hoping to find records of foremen hired for temporary work. After several weeks of searching, they found documents from a small logging company, Pacific Timber Works, which in 2010 hired temporary workers for projects in national forests. The company’s archives contained records of Michael Royce, a 46-year-old man who worked as a foreman at several sites.
The documents showed that Royce had a criminal record for aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon. He served his sentence in an Oregon state prison from 2005 to 2008. After his release, he joined Pacific Timber Works and established himself as a harsh but effective manager who could push workers to perform in difficult conditions.
Royy’s file listed an address in a Portland suburb where he rented a small warehouse to store his personal belongings and tools. Investigators obtained a search warrant and went to the address. The warehouse was located in an industrial area among dozens of similar metal structures that were rented out for various purposes. The owner of the warehouse complex, an elderly man named Frank Adams, confirmed that Royce had been renting unit number 27 from him since 2009.
He paid his rent regularly, always in cash, and rarely appeared, usually in the evening. Adams described the tenant as a tall man with dark hair and a scar on his face which matched the testimony of witnesses. When investigators opened the warehouse, they found a large number of tools, spare parts for logging equipment, several sledgehammers, and axes.
In the corner of the warehouse stood an old metal cabinet, which was locked with a padlock. After opening the lock, they found a Canon digital camera, several flash drives with photos, and a homemade photo album inside. The photos on the camera and flash drives proved to be evidence of multiple crimes.

Among the pictures were photos of people tied up, scenes of beatings, and several photos showing a body hanging from a tree. An examination confirmed that the area in the photos matched the section of forest where Eric Lawrence’s remains were found. One of the photos clearly showed the victim’s face. Eric’s mother, Linda Lawrence, officially identified her son from this photo.
The photo was taken shortly before his death as Eric’s face showed signs of beating and his expression indicated extreme fear and pain. In the photo album, investigators found pictures of at least five other victims, all young men between the ages of 20 and 35. Next to each photo, Royce had written notes by hand indicating the dates, locations, and methods of the murders.
He The note about Eric Lawrence read, “Tourist, June 27th. Sledgehammer hung as an example to the Mexicans.” Analysis of other notes showed that Royce had been committing similar crimes for several years. His victims were lone tourists who went hiking in remote areas of national forests. Royce tracked them down, attacked them, and then used them to intimidate illegal workers who labored at his logging sites.
Among the items found were bloodstained clothes, which according to expert analysis, belonged to Eric Lawrence. DNA analysis of the blood stains on the t-shirt and jeans matched the genetic material taken from the remains found in the forest. This was the final proof of Royce’s connection to the murder.
Investigators began developing a plan to apprehend the suspect. However, it turned out that Royce had not been seen at the warehouse for over a year. The warehouse owner reported that he had last seen the tenant in October 2012. Since then, no rent had been paid, but since the warehouse contained belongings, Adams did not dare to open the premises on his own. The search for Michael Royce turned into a nationwide manhunt.
His photo was sent to all law enforcement agencies in the country and a federal warrant was issued. Given the nature of the crimes and the presence of multiple victims, the case was transferred to the FBI as a series of murders. Federal bureau agents began their own investigation, focusing on finding other possible victims of Royce.
Analysis of photographs from his collection showed that the crimes were committed in different states. Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. This indicated that Royce was traveling across the country following seasonal work in the forestry industry. Databases of missing persons in these states were checked for matches with the victims depicted in Royce’s photographs.
Two more people were identified. Jason Park, a 22-year-old student from Seattle who disappeared while hiking in August 2009, and David Clark, a 30-year-old photographer from San Francisco who disappeared in September 2011. The search for the victim’s bodies began in areas that could be identified from the photographs in Royce’s collection.
The work was complicated by the fact that the photographs were taken in a dense forest where most of the trees and landscape features looked the same. Nevertheless, investigators hoped to find distinctive details that would help pinpoint the location.
A breakthrough in the search for Michael Roy came in January 2014 when FBI agents received information from an informant in California. The man, who identified himself as Alberto Sanchez, said he knew the whereabouts of a former logging company foreman who was hiding under an assumed name. Sanchez worked on an illegal marijuana plantation in remote areas of Northern California.
According to him, about a year and a half ago, a man who called himself Mark Johnson joined them. However, Sanchez recognized him by a scar on his face and his distinctive behavior as Michael Rece with whom he had worked in logging in Oregon in 2011. The plantation was located in a remote area of Humboldt County about 30 km from the nearest settlement.
It could only be reached by SUV on forest roads that were impassible for most of the year due to rain. Royce worked as a security guard for the plantation and lived in a small trailer house on the farm. FBI agents began planning the arrest operation. Given the remoteness of the area and the fact that Royce might be armed, it was decided to bring in a special unit.
The operation was cenamed Lumberjack and was scheduled for the early morning of February 5th, 2014. A week before the arrest, agents conducted reconnaissance of the area. The plantation was indeed located in a remote area surrounded by dense forest. There were several buildings on the property, the main house where the owners lived, three trailers for workers, a warehouse for equipment, and a small workshop.
Royce’s trailer was located at the edge of a clearing next to a dirt road. Surveillance showed that the suspect led a fairly isolated lifestyle. He rarely interacted with other workers, spending most of his time in his trailer or patrolling the perimeter of the plantation. He had a hunting rifle and a pistol, which he carried openly.
The farm owners treated him with caution, but appreciated his professionalism and willingness to use force against uninvited guests. On the morning of February 5th, a group of 12 FBI agents accompanied by a local sheriff’s posi blocked all possible escape routes from

the plantation. The main group approached Royce’s trailer around 6:00 a.m. while he was still asleep. The operation proceeded without gunfire as the suspect was caught off guard and did not have time to reach for his weapons. Upon arrest, Royce identified himself as Mark Johnson and claimed that the agents had made a mistake. However, his fingerprints and a scar on his face confirmed his identity.
In the trailer, agents found false documents in Johnson’s name, as well as several items linking him to the murders, a sledgehammer with dried blood stains, and another digital camera with compromising photos. During a search of the trailer, they also found a diary that Royce had kept for several years.
The diary contained detailed descriptions of his crimes, including the murder of Eric Lawrence. The entry showed that Royce considered his actions a necessary measure to maintain discipline among illegal workers. In an entry dated June 27th, 2010, Royce described in detail how he lured Eric to the logging site. According to him, he noticed the tourist on the trail and decided that he could become a witness to their illegal activities.
Royce approached Eric pretending to be a forest ranger and said that dangerous work was being carried out in the area, so the tourists needed to take a different route. Eric believed him and agreed to follow Royce. Royce led him to the loggger’s camp where he suddenly attacked him from behind, hitting him on the head with a sledgehammer. The wounded but still alive Eric was tied up and placed in a metal container.
He was kept there for 3 days, periodically beaten and used as an example to intimidate the workers. On the fourth day, Royce killed Eric for good with a few more blows from the sledgehammer. After that, the body was transported deep into the forest and hung from a tree in such a way as to create the maximum psychological effect.
Royce wrote that such a display helped him control the workers and prevent attempts to escape or disobey. The diary also contained information about other victims. In total, Royce confessed to killing seven people between 2008 and 2012. All of the victims were young men who were traveling alone in remote forest areas.
Royce chose them specifically knowing that the disappearance of lone tourists is often attributed to accidents. Michael Rece’s trial began in October 2014 in federal court in Portland. The prosecution brought seven counts of first-degree murder against him as well as additional charges of kidnapping, illegal possession of weapons, and organizing criminal activity.
The prosecutor announced that he would seek the maximum sentence. The defense attempted to prove the defendant’s insanity, citing his difficult childhood and psychological trauma suffered during his military service. The lawyers presented medical reports stating that Royce suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses that could have affected his ability to be responsible for his actions.
However, the diary and photographs found in Royce’s possession indicated that the crimes were carefully planned and carried out deliberately. Court psychiatrists concluded that the defendant fully understood the nature of his actions and was able to control his behavior. The defense’s attempt to invoke insanity was rejected by the court.
The main witnesses for the prosecution were former workers at the illegal logging sites, Carlos Mendes, Pedro Gonzalez, and Ricardo Vasquez. All three gave detailed accounts of the intimidation tactics used by Royce and how he used the captives to intimidate his subordinates. Their testimony fully corresponded to the entries in the defendant’s diary.
Eric Lawrence’s mother, Linda, also testified in court. She recounted the last days of her son’s life, his plans for the future, and how his disappearance affected the entire family. Her emotional testimony made a strong impression on the jury, especially when she described the years of uncertainty and pain of not knowing what had happened to Eric.
Experts presented a detailed analysis of the crime scene and the evidence found. A forensic expert explained in detail the nature of Eric’s injuries and confirmed that death was caused by multiple blows with a blunt object. A ballistics expert analyzed the sledgehammers found at Royce’s home and confirmed that one of them could have been the murder weapon.
Special attention was paid in court to photographs from Royce’s collection. Although most of the photos were deemed too graphic to be shown to the jury, several photos showing Eric’s face were presented as evidence. The victim’s mother formally identified her son from these photos.

The defense attempted to cast doubt on the credibility of the testimony, pointing out that most of the witnesses were illegal immigrants who might have given false testimony for fear of deportation. However, the physical evidence and Roy’s diary left no doubt as to his guilt. The trial lasted 3 weeks. The jury deliberated for 2 days before returning a unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts.
The judge set the sentencing date for December 15th, 2014. At the sentencing hearing, the victim’s relatives were given the opportunity to make statements about the impact of the crimes on their lives. Linda Lawrence spoke about how her son’s death had destroyed her life, about years of fruitless searching and about the pain she had experienced not knowing the truth. She called on the court to impose the most severe sentence possible.
Relatives of other victims also made similar statements. Jason Park’s parents talked about how their son’s disappearance affected their marriage and health. David Clark’s sister described the years of uncertainty and false hope that only ended after Royce’s arrest. Roy himself declined to speak before sentencing.
His lawyers asked the court to consider his mental state and sentenced him to life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty. They also pointed out that their client had cooperated with the investigation and helped find the bodies of other victims. Judge Margaret Henderson announced the sentence on December 15th. She sentenced Michael Royce to life imprisonment without parole on each of the seven counts of murder.
The sentences are to be served consecutively, which effectively means multiple life sentences. In her statement, the judge noted the particular cruelty of the crimes and the complete lack of remorse on the part of the defendant. She emphasized that the use of murder to intimidate workers turned each crime into an act of terrorism.
The judge also expressed her condolences to the families of the victims and noted their courage in fighting for justice. After the sentencing, Royce was transferred to a maximum security federal prison in Colorado, where he will serve his sentence in solitary confinement. The defense has filed an appeal, but legal experts believe that the chances of success are minimal due to the abundance of irrefutable evidence and the severity of the crimes.
The Eric Lawrence case has become one of the most high-profile serial murder cases in Oregon’s history. It has drawn attention to the safety concerns of lone travelers in remote areas and the use of illegal labor in the forestry industry. State authorities have tightened controls on logging operations and increased patrols of popular tourist routes.
Linda Lawrence established a memorial fund in her son’s name, which supports families of missing persons and finances search and rescue operations. The fund also lobbies for laws requiring tourists to register their roots with National Park Services. The bodies of Royce’s other victims have never been found.
Despite ongoing searches, investigators continue to study his diary and photographs in the hope of finding new leads. The families of these victims are still waiting for their loved ones to be found and buried with dignity. The story of Eric Lawrence’s disappearance and murder ended with the criminal receiving a just punishment.
But the scars left by these events will remain forever in the hearts of those who lost their loved ones. The case served as a reminder that even the most beautiful and peaceful places can hide deadly dangers.