1975, guards reported good behavior at Hatcher's parole review. In June 1976, the California Parole Board found that Hatcher had improved dramatically through his time in prison and set a parole date of December 25, 1978. As a result of the passage of a bill giving inmates credit for time spent in jails and mental hospitals, Hatcher received a modified parole date in January 1977. He was released to a halfway house in San Francisco on May 20, 1977. 1978–1982 On September 4, 1978, Hatcher was arrested under the name Richard Clark in Omaha, Nebraska for sexually assaulting a 16‑year‑old boy. He was sent to the Douglas County Mental Hospital and released in January 1979. On May 3, 1979, Hatcher was arrested for assault and attempted murder after he tried to stab seven‑year‑old Thomas Morton. He was sent to Norfolk Regional Center, a mental health facility, after the charges were dropped. In May 1980, Hatcher was released from the facility, but was sent back two months later for another assault. He escaped in September. On October 9, 1980, Hatcher was arrested as Richard Clark in Lincoln, Nebraska for the attempted assault and sodomy of a 17‑year‑old boy. He was sent to another mental health facility and released after 21 days. On January 13, 1981, Hatcher was arrested as Richard Clark in Des Moines, Iowa after a knife fight. He spent time in several mental health facilities and was released to a Davenport Salvation Army shelter in April. Melvin Reynolds On May 26, 1978, four‑year‑old Eric Christgen disappeared from downtown St. Joseph, Missouri. His body was later found along the Missouri River; he had been sexually abused and died of suffocation. The police questioned more than 100 possible suspects, including "every known pervert in town", to no avail. One of them was Melvin Reynolds, a 25‑year‑old man of limited intelligence who had been sexually abused himself as a child and who had homosexual experiences as an adolescent. Reynolds, although agitated by the investigation, cooperated through several interrogations over a period of months, including two polygraph examinations and one interrogation under hypnosis. In December 1978, he was questioned under amobarbitalbelieved at the time to be a truth serumand made an ambiguous remark that intensified police suspicion. Two months later, in February 1979, the police brought the still cooperative Reynolds in for another round of interrogation: fourteen hours of questions, promises, and threats.