On May 6, Roberta Kathleen Parks left her dormitory at Oregon State University in Corvallis, 85 miles (135 km) south of Portland, to have coffee with friends at the Memorial Union, but never arrived.

​

Kathy -- she was known by her middle name -- was a student at Oregon State, studying religion. She was unhappy around the time of her death, after breaking up with her boyfriend, and her father suffering a massive heart attack.

When she disappeared, on the way to meet friends, there was speculation she killed herself. Later, her skull and mandible were recovered at a site on Taylor Mountain, alongside those of Lynda Ann Healy, Susan Elaine Rancourt, and Brenda Carol Ball.