had searched the cave where Belinda and the children's bodies were found, and that they were not there at that time. To confirm he was referring to the same cave, law enforcement had the man escort them to the cave he had searched; it was the same cave where the bodies had been discovered. Suspects Dwain Lee Little Law enforcement considered Dwain Lee Little of Ruch, 25 at the time of the family's disappearance, a suspect in their murders. Little had been paroled from the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem on May 24, 1974, three months prior to the Cowdens' disappearances. At 16, in 1964, he had raped and murdered teenager Orla Fay Fipps. State police were able to determine that Little had been in Copper over the Labor Day weekend at the approximate time the Cowden family disappeared. Little's girlfriend told law enforcement that she had seen him with a .22 caliber gun during Christmastime 1974; on January 12, 1975, his parole was revoked after she informed police of his possession of a firearm. Little was paroled again on April 26, 1977. On June 2, 1980, Little picked up a pregnant 23-year-old named Margie Hunter, whose car had broken down near Portland, Oregon, and sexually assaulted and beat her. Hunter and her unborn child survived, and Little was charged and convicted of attempted homicide and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. Police later suspected that the two men and woman in a truck reported by the Los Angeles family at the campground were in fact Little and his parents, as their truck matched the description provided by the family. Little and his parents denied any knowledge of the Cowdens' disappearances; however, a miner who owned a cabin nearby claimed that Little and his parents had stopped by on Monday, September 2, 1974, and signed a guestbook he kept for visitors. Rusty Kelly, an inmate who at one time shared a cell with Little, would later claim that Little confessed to the Cowdens' murders. Despite the "voluminous" circumstantial evidence, Little has never been charged with the murders of the Cowden family. See also Crime in Oregon List of solved missing person cases List of unsolved murders Notes References Works cited External links Richard Gale Cowden at Find a Grave Belinda June Cowden at Find a Grave David James Phillips at Find a Grave Melissa Dawn Cowden at Find a Grave