On August 7, 1980, 78-year-old Theodore May was found bludgeoned to death in the garage of his home in Chehalis, Washington. The killing shocked the small community and prompted a criminal investigation that identified a suspect relatively quickly.

Authorities charged 27-year-old William Perry Jackson in connection with May’s beating. Jackson pleaded guilty to the attack that resulted in May’s death. While held at the Lewis County Jail awaiting return to the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Jackson escaped custody by tunneling through a plaster wall, crawling through a space to a courthouse roof, and lowering himself with a rope made from blankets.

Several hours later he was recaptured in southeast Portland, Oregon, unarmed and wearing different clothes. Anyone who knew Theodore May or has information about his life or final days is asked to come forward.