hunter may find." Over two-hundred citizens wrote to then-Oregon senator Mark Hatfield requesting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation begin looking at the case. The petition, however, was denied on the grounds that there was "no evidence that the Cowdens had been kidnapped or taken across state lines." At the time, there were a total of eight reported missing women in Washington and Oregon, and law enforcement attempted to seek a connection between these disappearances and that of the Cowdens (the disappearances of these eight women, however, would later be linked to serial killer Ted Bundy). Discovery of bodies On April 12, 1975, two gold prospectors from Forest Grove, Oregon, were hiking through the woods near Carberry Creek when they discovered the decomposing body of an adult male tied to a tree on a steep hillside. In a small cave nearby, the bodies of an adult female, a child, and an infant were discovered. Positive identification of the bodies as those of the Cowden family was made via dental records. The location where the bodies were discovered was approximately from the family's campsite. Autopsies revealed that Belinda and David had died as a result of .22 caliber gunshot wounds; five-month-old Melissa had died from severe head trauma. Law enforcement suspected Richard Cowden died at the site of where his body was found, but were unable to determine a cause of death. It was surmised by investigators that Belinda and their two children could have potentially been killed elsewhere and subsequently concealed in the cave. Law enforcement searched the surrounding area for a murder weapon, but were unable to recover one. Investigation Interviews were conducted with numerous persons who were at the campground on September 1. One family from Los Angeles had arrived at the campground at 5 pm that day. While walking in the park that evening, they witnessed two men and a woman parking nearby in a pickup truck; the father recalled: "They acted like they were waiting for us to leave, and frankly, they made us nervous—so we moved on." Based on the location of Belinda's and the children's bodies inside the cave, Lieutenant Kezar suspected that the person responsible was a local resident who knew the area and was aware of the cave location. After the family's remains were recovered, a resident of Grants Pass who had volunteered in the search told police that in September he