Key Pieces of Evidence Seen as Links to Killings

Clothing, hair fibers and a camera helped connect suspected serial killer Randy Steven Kraft to several murders, it has been learned from sources close to the case and a review of court documents.

One clue that prosecutors say is connected to at least three killings is a simple fatigue jacket. It has been identified as belonging to a 29-year-old Oregon man named Anthony Silveira.

Silveira disappeared near Salem, Ore., on Dec. 3, 1982, at a time, according to Kraft’s own records, when Kraft was in Oregon on a business trip.

From Oregon, his records show, Kraft flew to Michigan, where he registered at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. Later, a fatigue jacket with Silveira’s name in it was found at the hotel.

Orange County prosecutors now say Kraft killed Silveira. In addition, citing physical evidence retrieved from Kraft’s house in Long Beach, Orange County authorities have accused him of killing two Michigan cousins who had been attending a convention at the Amway Grand Plaza at the time Kraft was registered there.

Camera Found in His House

The first piece of physical evidence linking Kraft to an out-of-state killing was a camera found during a search of his house in Long Beach.

Oregon State Police Sgt. James B. Reed recalls the disappointment--and then the excitement--among Oregon investigators after it was found. Initials on the camera--”MJO”-- were close to those of Michael Sean O’Fallon, who was found dead alongside Interstate 5 in 1980.

“I called the boy’s mother in Colorado, and she straightened it out,” Reed said. It had been her camera; “MJO” were her initials.

Michael Delaney, a Sheriff’s Department investigator in Stanislaus County, in Northern California, helped make a connection that led Orange County authorities to add a name to the list of homicides they intend to bring up in the penalty phase of Kraft’s trial.

“Right after (Kraft’s) arrest,” Delaney said “an Orange County investigator called and said Mikeal Laine’s name, or something which led to his name, had been found in Kraft’s car. Did we know anything about Laine?

“We didn’t know a thing. We didn’t have any victims by that name, and he wasn’t on our missing persons list. But I finally located the boy’s mother. She told me he had been missing since November (1982), but she hadn’t reported it because she kept hoping he would come home.”

Laine’s name became the 21st, and last, on a list of victims involved in the penalty-phase accusations, although court records don’t say why.

Other pieces of evidence:

The body of another alleged Kraft victim, Roland Young, was found in Irvine on June 11, 1978. Seven years later, a crime lab said strands of hair found on the body matched Kraft’s.

Prosecutors say at least four of Kraft’s alleged victims were found with a distinctive piece of clothing. They say the way the clothing appeared on the bodies represents a pattern.

One of the four was a a man who disappeared in Oregon while Kraft was there. Prosecutors say they later found the man’s duffel bag in Kraft’s house.

Another of those four bodies found with the distinctive clothing was that of a San Bernardino County man. Sources say the man may also be linked to Kraft through a handwritten list found in Kraft’s car when he was arrested.