Going West: True Crime - Eric Tamiyasu // 37

Episode Date: September 2, 2019

In Summer of 2001, a 41-year-old man is found murdered in his house alone on his family's orchard in Oregon. Police quickly discover that the night he was killed, someone had been lurking outside his house, taunting him. This is the case of Eric Tamiyasu. Do you have anxiety, stress, insomnia, or lack of energy? You need to try Lumi! Get 10% off your order at lumicbd.com using promo code goingwest. OR click this link! https://lumicbd.com/?afmc=3m&utm_campaign=3m&utm_source=leaddyno&utm_medium=affiliate Get 20% off your first Hunt a Killer subscription box using promo code going west at huntakiller.com **Going West does not own the media in this episode** Koin 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bK7HKY32vw&t=15s **Research Sources** https://www.hoodrivernews.com/archive/tamiyasu-case-rumors-swirl-around-murder/article_4ae78ba0-6843-5512-b06f-83536e7a7509.html https://www.hoodrivernews.com/archive/local-murder-draws-new-exposure/article_90b5070d-9b53-5964-9f70-a6d50c417426.html https://www.koin.com/archives/somebody-came-for-sole-purpose-of-killing-eric/ https://unsolved.com/gallery/eric-tamiyasu/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/8xyn72/the_2001_murder_of_eric_tamiyasu_a_whodunit/  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host he, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. We just released a brand new bonus episode on our Patreon, which is patreon.com slash going west podcast, and we discussed the murder of Garrett Phillips. We also discussed the HBO documentary Who Killed Garrett Phillips, which came out just this past July 2019. It's a really interesting case, and if anyone wants to hear that episode, go over to our Patreon account. Yes, definitely make sure you go over there and subscribe for some bonus content and we're gonna give thanks to the people who subscribe this week. So thank you to Josie, Heather, Kasey,

Erica, Catherine, Megan, and thank you Mary. It really helps out the show so thank you guys so much. Go join the Going West gang at patreon.com slash Going West Podcast. As always, we want to give love to the people who gave us some five star reviews this week. So thank you so much to Kurt from Wichita, Kansas and Greg from Chicago, Illinois. And a big thanks to Maikia from Florida and LGBT Chess from New York. Thank you to Tristan from Nalens and Victoria from Germany. And a big thanks to Claire from Arkansas and four people who didn't leave their location.

Tilly, Sherry, Zach and Koli. And big thanks to some more of our international listeners. Thank you to Simon from also Norway and James from Winnipeg, Manage, Elba, Canada. And a big thanks to Sherry from Cambridge, Ontario and Annette from Spain. Thank you to Michelle from Ontario and Brianna from Victoria, Canada. And then we have Adelaia from Canada and Emma from Sydney, Australia. Thanks to Jay from Halibut, Ontario and Kels from Southend on Sea, England.

And then a big thanks to Lee Roy from Canada and Tori from British Columbia. And last but not least, thank you to Katie from Ontario Canada. If you guys would like a shout out in our show, make sure you head over to Apple Podcast, leave us a five star review, but don't forget to leave your name and your location. All right guys, this is episode 37 of Going West, so let's get into it. The city of Hood River was rocked by the murder of 41-year-old Eric Tamiyasiun. It's still a mystery partly because of the strange events that happened both before he died and during the investigation afterwards.

About a week before he was murdered, Eric was with a woman named Diana at his house at night when, knock at the door it happened twice Each time Eric answered nobody was there It looked like he was in bed sleeping and he was shot They found a food ball And I said my god, I can't be Suicide that's gotta be murdered And I said, my God, I can't be suicide. That's gotta be murder.

Don Dixon, Eric's friend, found his decomposing body in the upstairs bedroom of the house Eric had recently built next to his orchard on Bins Hill Road. Eric Tomayasu was born on November 23rd, 1959 in Hood River, Oregon to parents Mitsuji who went by Mitz and Jinco who went by Jeanne. His mom was born in Portland and his dad was born in Hood River, so they were both organ natives too, but their parents were born in Japan. Eric had siblings, Ramona, Teresa, and Stan, and they all grew up on the family's farm, Tomayasu Orchards, which had been in the family since 1910. It was originally a strawberry and asparagus farm until the 1930s when they started

growing more fruit. Eric's sister Ramona had moved to San Francisco to study Asian American history and then ended up moving to Seattle where she studied acupuncture and oriental medicine and she also met her husband. We'll mention her in this case but we don't know much about the other siblings. But it seems Eric remained in Hood River throughout his life, which is a beautiful town in Oregon with a population of around 7,000 that has a lot of fruit farms, wineries, and great trails for biking and hiking. Eric was very well liked throughout the community and everyone seemed to know him.

And I'm an organ native to and I've been to Hood River and it's basically this picturesque town right on the river, it's super beautiful, and it's very quaint, it's very clean, and seems like a really good place to raise a family. In the late 1980s, Eric took over responsibility of his family's orchard. He lived next to the property in a very rural, remotely located home that he had recently built on Bins Hill Road, and he operated the business since his parents had decided to retire. So by 2001, Eric was 41 years old and had been in charge of the orchard for 15 years. On June 25th, 2001, Eric invited his friend Diane Anderson over. The two had been friends for many years but that night they apparently

decided to go on a date. According to Diane, it was a very casual situation. They had known each other for a while and just wanted to see if there was something more there. While they were hanging out that evening, they heard some weird tapping noises coming from outside Eric's house. They thought it might have been taps on the window. Then the doorbell rang. They weren't expecting anyone else to come by and neither of them knew who it could be. Then the doorbell ring again, and this time Eric went to go see who it was, but when he opened the door, there was no one there. And as he stood in the doorway, he heard footsteps running away.

Diane joined him and they walked outside to see if they could see anyone, and that's when they noticed a shoe print in the dirt. But I'm not sure how they determined that this was from someone else and not them, but a few hours went by and they didn't hear anything else and then Diane left. And I can't stress enough that the place where Eric lived was very rural, so it's not like he lived in an apartment complex or a cul-de-sac where potentially some neighbors would come by and knock on the door or ring the doorbell So it would be very very odd for someone to be at his house at that time

Yeah, this is like straight out of a scary movie Diane describes that when she was driving away from Eric's house even though they hadn't heard those strange noises for a couple hours She was really scared and driving home alone freaked her out hers, she was really scared, and driving home alone freaked her out. Five days passed and no one had heard from Eric. His friend and business consultant, Don Dixon, decided to swing by his house to make sure everything was okay. He had a spare key that Eric had supposedly given him, and he entered the house through the back door.

As soon as Don opened the door, he smelled what he thought was old garbage that hadn't been taken out. He continued to walk through the house looking for Eric, and then he went upstairs. He walked into Eric's bedroom and saw him laying on the bed, and Don says that there was no doubt in his mind that he was dead. His body was decomposing. Don says that he yelled, Eric, then set a prayer and then went downstairs to call 911. Then he called Eric's sister Ramona, who remember was living in Seattle at the time.

When police got to the house, they couldn't immediately identify Eric's cause of death. Since his body had been decomposing for what they estimated to be four to five days, they didn't see any clear cause for this, and they didn't think that foul play was involved initially. They had thought that maybe he died from a medical condition or something along those lines. Police say that they tried to see if there were any bullet holes anywhere or shell casings and even a gun, but they didn't see anything. So like I said, they say they thought this was a natural death.

Hood River, county sheriff, Joe Wompler, then asked Don Dixon if Eric had a burn pile so they could burn Eric's bedding because they wanted to spare the family grief from seeing it. Apparently, since Eric had been dead for days, he had soiled the bed. So that's why the sheriff wanted it burned so that the family didn't have to see that. Other than not seeing anything right away, police didn't think that this was a murder because Eric was such a nice guy and he didn't have any enemies, as far as they knew. Don said that he didn't think it was a weird request. In his eyes, if it would spare the rest of the Tamiya Sioux family, he wanted to go and help. The police then asked Don Dixon,

who is obviously not on the police force, to burn the sheets and he did. And this was done before Eric's autopsy, which took place the following day. So they burned potential evidence before even knowing Eric's cause of death. When the medical examiners looked at Eric's body, they found 3 22 caliber bullets in his skull, and this apparently stunned investigators. The death of Eric Tomayasu was now a homicide investigation. They didn't think it had been a robbery gone wrong due to lack of evidence on that front.

Nothing appeared to be taken from the home and there was no sign of struggle. I understand that police didn't want the family to see the bedding, but just at least to be safe, they should have never burned it. Especially because they didn't know how he died for sure, and they say that they looked for bullets, which is interesting to me because that's pretty specific, you know, I mean, people aren't only murdered by guns. Since Eric's body had become pretty decomposed, they wouldn't have been able to tell if he had been stabbed or strangled either. So for them to just make the quick assumption that a seemingly healthy 41 year old man died of natural causes and then act on it is pretty irresponsible. Definitely, and that's the one thing that I have

a huge problem with obviously in these types of investigations is when the evidence is mishandled or it's displaced or, you know, in this case burned. I mean, there could have potentially been some fingerprints, some hairs, anything that could have been somewhat identifiable and made this case easier. The thing that confuses me is how it wasn't obvious that he had been shot. I obviously haven't seen photos of the crime scene, but I would imagine that there would have been bullet holes in the bed or somewhere in the room, or at least a lot of blood underneath his head. And I know that this is disturbing, so forewarning, but I did read online that usually around three to five days after death,

the body starts to bloat, and bloody foam leaks from the nose and the mouth. But the body doesn't liquefy until one month. So my reason for bringing this up is that I feel like any blood from this gunshot wound would have been pretty obvious unless of course he was killed somewhere else and moved which seems to be the only solution if police say they didn't find any bullet holes anywhere. I did actually read that there were no exit wounds from the back of Eric's skull, so I guess that would kind of lead me to believe that there was no bullet holes in the actual bed or the sheets. Okay, that makes a lot of sense somehow I didn't even think of that.

So if the bullets didn't leave his head, so if he was shot three times and they didn't exit, then there wouldn't be bullet holes, but then this person has a pretty good shot if they could shoot him three times in the head and not miss or hit something else. But I do find that it's kind of surprising that police didn't notice the bullet holes in the head and I understand the decomposition process and all of that, but I feel like maybe those would have stood out to them, but I'm not sure. So at this point, Sheriff Wompler is getting some backlash for having the bed burned, but he stood by his actions.

He said that because of the lack of evidence at Eric's house, he really just didn't think it would be a homicide, and he mostly cared about the family being traumatized by what they would have seen once all the police had left. He stated that he was just trying to be a nice guy. And at that point, it would have been the family's responsibility to clean up Eric's house. So I definitely understand that that would have been very traumatizing and upsetting.

So I do see why the sheriff did this and that this was his point of view, but I still think that they should have at least been sure before they did it. I mean, they should have at least maybe just taken the bedding with them to the lab or something like that instead of just getting rid of it. Because at that point, it would still be out of the house and the family wouldn't have to deal with it, but you could still use it for evidence

if you needed it. Right, and I think it's very, very important for law enforcement to test all the evidence. I mean, basically a crime scene, you have to look at every single thing that's laying around and Especially when it comes to a bed. That's a huge thing Also, they say that they did test the bedding for forensic evidence before they burned it But the reason why people are so upset by this is that who knows how much Evidence they took and then also just after knowing that it's a homicide, then you could have gotten other things from it. So they probably took forensic evidence

from it in a very minor way I would assume because the sheriff did realize that he did something wrong. So at least they did take forensic evidence from it, but still. Yeah, and I definitely think we can all agree that it probably should have been sent to a lab for testing. Eric's sister Ramona filed a complaint to the police department regarding the destruction of private property since they hadn't even given the share of permission to burn the bedding. The sheriff made the call all on his own, assuming the Tamiya sues wouldn't want the bedding sitting in the house. In response, the sheriff's office offered to pay for a replacement bed.

But obviously that wasn't the point that Ramono was trying to make. I'm sure she didn't really care about the bedding. She just cared about what was potentially on the bedding. So like I said, they did collect forensic evidence from the bed before they burned it, but apparently because of state budget cuts, it created a really long delay in processing

said evidence. The Tomayasu family decided to put together a reward in exchange for information leading to the arrest of Eric's murderer. They offered $10,000 to anyone who would help them put the case to rest. People started to immediately become a bit suspicious of the sheriff because right off the bat, there was no real obvious suspect here. People started to immediately become a bit suspicious of the sheriff because right off the bat, there was no real obvious suspect here. Investigators spoke with Diane regarding what happened on June 25th when she was at his

house, but this didn't help the narrow down who the killer would have been. And the footprint that she described that was supposedly outside Eric's front door had been washed away due to heavy rain. People in Hood River started to wonder if the sheriff had something to do with Eric's front door, had been washed away due to heavy rain. People in Hood River started to wonder if the sheriff had something to do with Eric's death. Sheriff Womplers' wife was Polynesian, and like we mentioned earlier, Eric was Japanese. Because of this, people around town started to whisper that they were having an affair and that the sheriff found out, so he had him killed.

The sheriff had even heard this rumor and stated that people thought that he had burned the bedding in order to destroy evidence so he couldn't be pinned for the crime. In an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, he said, they're looking in the wrong direction. And the Sheriff's wife was older than Eric, so she would have been an older woman having an affair with this 41-year-old man. Yeah, I kind of just think that this was a rumor that got started and maybe got a little bit out of hand. So since there seemed to be potential motive with the sheriff, because he had burned possible evidence,

he was given a polygraph test and he passed. I read this in a couple sources, but I also read in the Hood River news that the Oregon State Police did not allow the sheriff to take a polygraph because he wasn't a suspect. So they didn't think that it was necessary for him to take one, but it also did read in a different source that he took it and passed, but wanted to take a different test to prove his innocence to the community even further, and that's when the state refused him. Don Dixon confirmed that Eric and the sheriff's wife were having an affair, but this is just Don's word against the sheriff's, and I also did read somewhere that Don was potentially

the person who started this rumor about the affair, but I'm not sure on that. Since Eric's family wasn't getting their questions answered by the police, they hired a private investigator named Darren Coats. Don Dixon came forward with a potential suspect in Eric's murder. He said that just two days before the murder, he had overheard a conversation between Eric and one of his long time friends named Eric Smith, and it had gotten aggressive. Apparently, the two had been doing business selling used cars for a while, and Eric thought that Eric Smith had been pocketing some of their earnings without telling him. Eric Tomayasu was apparently owed around $60,000, and he told Don about this and was really

pissed off about it. He also said that he called Eric Smith a son of a bitch and stormed out. Interestingly enough, Eric Smith said that none of this ever happened. He denied an argument ever taking place and said that neither of them owed the other one money. He even said that Don was living in a fantasy world. He also mentioned that Eric was the best man at his wedding and was practically like a brother to him, and he would never murder his best friend. A likely non-existent argument about $60,000 hardly seems like a motive for murder anyway, and police actually did check up on this by looking into both of their accounts.

They noticed that they had each invested around $15,000 into the business, and it didn't appear that there was money missing anywhere. Eric Smith even took a polygraph test and passed, so they didn't believe Don's story. But then that brings up another question. Why would Don lie about it? Do you suffer from anxiety, stress, lack of energy, insomnia, pain? You need to try loomie. They have a variety of products from tinctures to my personal favorite, CBD and aromatherapy pens. They have three different blends.

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is really cool. Right now you can use promo code GoingWest that checkout to receive 20% off your first box. That's promo code GoingWest for 20% off your first box. Happy hunting guys! So at this point in our story, Eric Smith had passed a polygraph test, and we're trying to decide why would Don Dixon lie about this? I think it's pretty notorious for perpetrators to be involved in an investigation and to try to throw people off, so I think it's pretty suspicious if Don did indeed make this

story up because other than trying to take the heat off himself, why would he do this? And remember guys, Don Dixon is the one who potentially made up this story about the sheriff's wife and Eric to kind of distract people from this. So he's lying about Eric Smith and he's lying about the sheriff and his wife. It kind of makes me question him a little bit. And we don't know for sure that these were lies. The issue here is that it's someone's word against someone else's word, so unfortunately we can't ask Eric himself.

Eric's sister Ramona has mentioned how strange it was when Don called her in hysterics about Eric's death. He had told her that there didn't seem to be any foul play involved and that he didn't see any exit wounds on Eric's body. So first of all, this would mean that Don would have been looking at his friend's decomposing body for gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, Don had no idea if it's even safe being inside the house. Ramona didn't understand why Don even mentioned anything about a gun because it seemed to be very specific. There's also talk about the fact that Don didn't know Ramona.

Yet he was the one to call her and tell her about Eric. And Ramona even seemed to be a little bit suspicious of this, and the fact that Don had talked about the gunshot wounds, because like we mentioned, when police looked at the scene, they didn't think that he was shot at all, so the fact that Don had brought this up is pretty weird. Right, it also, you know, it kind of seems like he has some inside knowledge didn't think that he was shot at all. So the fact that John had brought this up is pretty weird. Right, it also, you know, it kind of seems like he has some inside knowledge that Eric was shot,

right? I also think it's weird that he was looking at Eric's body. I mean, this is supposedly your friend and your business consultant or whatever their relationship really was, and you're just looking at his five-day dead body? I mean, that's horrific. Yeah, I mean, especially if you came into somebody's house not knowing that they were dead in their bed, and you stumble upon their decomposing body. In my opinion, I would run out of the house. I mean, I would be so scared. I wouldn't just stand there and try to analyze what's going on with the body. I would just get the fuck out of there. Well, exactly, and I think that most people would do that, and in a lot of cases like this,

where we've talked about somebody stumbling upon their loved one's body, that's exactly what they do. They run out of the house because they're scared. They're like, is there someone in the house? Am I in danger? But he was like, oh, he called the sister. He said a prayer over his body. He looked at his body.

He acted like he was just chilling in the house I gave him a big deal. Right, and not only this, but that's just honestly a horrible sight to see. So not even the fact that there could have still been a perpetrator in the house or the fact that he doesn't know the situation or anything that's going on, it's just kind of terrifying to see a dead body. And he and I usually like to remain unbiased when we talk about cases, even though we obviously always have an opinion. So we're just kind of focusing on Don right now, because these are just thoughts that we're having as we're researching this case, so I don't want anyone to think that we're

like, it was Don. Yeah, we're not trying to steer the investigation in one direction or the other. We just found that some of these facts were a little bit strange to us and we thought that we would note them. Don's explanation for his conversation with Ramona was that his initial thought was Eric committed suicide because he had supposedly been depressed because the orchard hadn't been doing very well and he needed to be making more money. I think this theory would have definitely made sense had there been a gun next to him, but why would Don look for bullet holes for a suicide when there wasn't a gun anywhere

in the room? Some people also question why Don had a key to Eric's house, because many of Eric's real friends have stated that he and Don were simply casual acquaintances, and that Eric just bought sprays from him for his orchard. They couldn't imagine why Don would ever have a key to his house, and this isn't even something that his actual friends had, and a lot of them had never even heard of Don until after Eric's death. So Don doesn't even really seem like he was a very big part of Eric's life.

Police felt as though Don Dixon was a potential suspect, so they wanted him to take a polygraph test. Since they had no evidence connecting him to the crime, it had to be voluntary on Don's part. But when they asked him if he would take one, he said no. After some time, Don Dixon agreed to take a polygraph test, but there were many complications while administering it. So Don did it independently.

The results came back as inconclusive. Apparently, the results were inconclusive because Don Dixon was taking medication after having a kidney transplant, and that somehow affected his test results. Okay, first things first, if you're not gonna take a polygraph test, we have the right to be very suspicious.

Absolutely. But going back to the sheriff, I think if Sheriff Wompler did murder Eric, a polygraph test, we have the right to be very suspicious. Absolutely. But going back to the sheriff, I think if Sheriff Wompler did murder Eric, he wouldn't have tapped on the window and rang the doorbell. That kind of seems like an immature scare tactic, like something straight out of a horror movie, and I don't think the sheriff would have made himself known like that. I mean, this is a town of 7,000 people, so pretty much everyone knows the sheriff. I think he would have just killed him without any of the funny business.

Right, and he's also an officer of the law, so why would he even play around like that? If he wanted to execute someone, you'd think he'd be a little bit smarter about doing it. Exactly, this just doesn't sound like it would be his style. Speaking of the window tapping and doorbell ringing, this was told to police by Diane Anderson because she was the only one with Eric that night. The difficult thing about this account is that we pretty much have to take her word for it. Since we know Eric was likely murdered that night, the story of someone lurking outside Eric's house points us away from Diane as a suspect.

Years after Eric's murder, police started looking at an all-new suspect. This person was Diane's ex-boyfriend, who was described to be invasive and had a history of stalking. He also happened to be the father of her child. If someone really did knock on the window and ring the doorbell that night, this sounds like something a weird ex-boyfriend would do to try and freak them out. Unfortunately, the information on this ex-boyfriend has not been released to the public, and he hasn't been convicted of any crime, so it's possible he's been ruled out as a suspect.

Please just haven't come out with any of this information. We're not sure where he lived at the time of the murder or what his alibi was either. Diane Anderson was never given a polygraph test and she was never considered a suspect. Like we mentioned, all the strange noises, the supposed footprint that was washed away by the rain, and the fact that they were on a date that night is just her word. I'm not sure what her motive for murder would be, but I do think it's a bit odd that she didn't question that she hadn't heard from Eric in a few days, especially if someone had been lurking outside the house, and then she didn't hear from him for days after she had been on a date with him. It seems like she would have wanted to check up on him or would or at least tried to contact him. I will note that this was 2001, so it's not like it's today where we're in constant

contact with people. But cell phones were obviously around in 2001, so communication was easy then too. What I want to know is were any doors unlocked when police got there and was Eric's own house key missing from his set. And I didn't see any information about if they found any evidence from the bedding. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that they didn't or else they probably would have arrested somebody by now, but I would like to know what kind of came up on his bedding since they did have it tested. Even though the testing was delayed, it has

now been a lot of years and I'm sure they know by now. Whoever killed Eric shot him three times in the head. He didn't have bolt wounds anywhere else on his body, so this person wanted to make damn sure that Eric would die, and they killed him execution style. It appears that Eric was likely killed while he was sleeping. The following year in 2002, the Hood River Sheriff's Office contacted top forensic experts at the Scotland Yard Training Academy in England to see if there was any way that their technological advances could help with this investigation into Eric's murder. They told him that the bullets found in Eric's head were very commonly used and that they were compatible with over a dozen

firearms. They didn't have a gun recovered, but they figured if they knew which firearms matched the gun, it could help down the line if evidence were to surface. Some people suspect that Sheriff Wompler and Don Dixon were working together in this, but I don't personally think that there was a motive there for that. But I do think it's very strange that the sheriff asked Dawn to burn the mattress instead of asking someone on the police force to do it. We're unsure of the relationship between them, but regardless, police came onto the scene thinking that Dawn just stumbled upon his friend's body, so why would he ask him to help clean up the scene? I have never

heard of that happening at any other crime scene, but at the same time, Hood River is a very small town that has a really low crime rate. I mean, murder almost never happens there. So for all we know, some of these officers had never even worked on a murder scene before, and that's why they assumed that it wasn't one. The last murder in the town of Hood River had been six years earlier, but it still seems odd that Don would have burned the bedding himself. But personally, I really don't think that this means the sheriff was involved. I really believe that if the sheriff was the killer, he would have just burned the evidence when he committed the murder. Burning it later obviously makes him look

suspicious, so I don't think he would have risked that. We see so many cases about the body or scene being burned to erase any evidence, and I really think that he probably would have done that. And I also don't think that he would have worked with Don Dixon on this murder. I think if anything, Don alone seems like a decent suspect, whereas Sheriff Wompler seems like a pretty good man man and he's been doing a lot to try to solve this case. And I've read from some different sources as well that Sheriff Wompler was a pretty good guy and he really respected the community and he tried to do everything he could to help

solve other cases so I just don't know if this would be him. One of the biggest things that stands out to me is the whole key situation because I really don't know why Don Dixon would have a key to Eric's house. So maybe Don knew where Eric kept his spare? Either way, the fact that he had a key makes him look more likely of committing this murder to me. Because if Eric had been killed in his living room or kitchen, it would have been obvious that maybe someone either broke in or Eric opened the door and was then attacked. But he was murdered upstairs in his bedroom. Since there was no sign of break in or struggle, maybe the killer had a key and entered

while Eric was asleep. And who supposedly had a key? Don Dixon. And another thing for us to consider is the time frame of this murder. It was likely at night, and most likely he would have locked his door, especially if he had heard strange noises and footsteps and was kind of alarmed by the doorbell ringing as well. Don Dixon, who was 51 years old in 2001, so about 10 years older than Eric, was married

to a woman at the time of Eric's murder, but many point out the fact that Don may have been obsessed with Eric, and potentially romantically interested in him. And we don't know what his sexual orientation was for sure. We don't want to make any assumptions about either of them, but we did see this theory online and thought it was worth mentioning. Unfortunately, since many of Eric's friends didn't know who Don was before the murder, no one can really back up any claims surrounding the two of

them. Judging by Don's general behavior, he kind of seems like an odd duck. That doesn't necessarily mean he's capable of murder, but he seemed to put a lot of attention on himself and make a lot of strange claims throughout this investigation. And unfortunately, we also don't know as alibi. This might be silly to even mention, but I did find a social media account for Don, and the photo of him has a rainbow filter over it and is titled Celebrate Pride.

But the account does also say that he's still married. So I'm not saying that just because you celebrate gay rights means that you're gay, of course. But I found this immediately after reading a bunch of theories that he was romantically interested in Eric and had been potentially turned down, and that's why he was angry and maybe murdered Eric. So I just wanted to put it out there. And I also want to say that just because we talk about a theory doesn't mean that we necessarily believe it. You know, theories are theories and we think it's a good idea to present you guys with all different kinds of thoughts and potentials, which is why I'm bringing this one in particular

up. Again, a lot of people are going to think it's kind of out of nowhere, which I totally understand, but I still think it's fair to at least mention. Right, and we tell you guys this every time we put out an episode that, you know, like you said, theories are just theories That doesn't mean it's our opinion or what we actually think but also we like to give you guys all the information and all the different sides and angles so you can decide for yourself. Well right because as we're researching the cases and we're reading different forums and Different Reddit articles and just people saying their own theories. I think it definitely helps kind of bring you to a certain conclusion. And so that's why we want to talk about all of them.

Eric, Sister Ramona and her husband ended up moving back to Hood River from Seattle to take over the family business. If you know anything about this case, please contact the Hood River Police Department at 541-386-2121. There isn't too much information out there regarding this case, so it's definitely a who-done it. So, who do you think killed Eric Tomayasu? Thank you everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone and as always we'll have an all-new case for you next week

to dive into. Make sure to check out our Patreon page for bonus episodes. We have five out right now. They're all really interesting cases. So go catch up. Patreon.com slash Going West Podcast. And don't forget to go see Daphne over on Instagram at Going West Podcast and check out

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