Alleged Serial Killer Tied To 6Th Death

PORTLAND - A man suspected of five slayings across the country has been linked to a 1984 death in which another man pleaded guilty, police said yesterday.

John J. Fautenberry, a former Portland trucker, is suspected of killing his victims for their credit cards. He was arrested last month in Juneau, Alaska.

Police in Portland and Roseburg said they have reopened the investigation into the death of Richard F. Combs, 25, a transient whose body was found in Roseburg.

Portland homicide detectives said they interviewed Michael T. Collier, 28, who is serving a 30-year sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary. He pleaded no contest to manslaughter in Combs' death.

Portland police Detective Tom Nelson declined to say how police had linked Fautenberry to Combs' death.

Roseburg police Lt. John Hodgson said Fautenberry's name never came up when Collier was questioned about Combs' death after his arrest for a string of tavern burglaries.

"Right now he has changed his statement and is saying he didn't do it," Hodgson said. "His reason is he thought he was helping another guy by pleading guilty to it."

Nelson and Detective Mike Hefley interviewed Fautenberry in Juneau after he was arrested there in the stabbing death of Jefferson Diffee, 45, a mine worker. Investigators contacted Roseburg police 17 days after talking to Fautenberry.

Fautenberry also is charged or suspected in four other killings:

-- Christine Guthrie, 32, of Portland. Police said she met Fautenberry at a party last February and accompanied him to the coast. Her body was found off a logging trail in the Coast Range.

-- Gary W. Farmer, 27, of Springfield, Tenn., whose body was found Feb. 5 at a New Jersey truck stop.

-- Joseph Daron Jr., who was shot dead Feb. 17 along U.S. Highway 52 in Ohio.

-- Donald Nutley, 47, of Waco, Texas, who was last seen in November at a Troutdale, Ore., truck stop.