[7] By the time his murders began, he acquired several more convictions for minor offenses, including carrying a concealed weapon in Ohio and a public disturbance charge in Ledyard, Connecticut.

The pair crossed paths in November 1990 at a truck stop in Troutdale, Oregon, and upon learning that Nutley was going to Mount Hood for target practice, Fautenberry offered to accompany him.

[9] His disappearance remained a mystery until April 21, 1991, when his teeth and skull, complete with a bullet hole, were found in a wooded area northeast of rural Zigzag.

Farmer's body was found on February 5 and remained unidentified for a few days, and after his identity was recovered,[11] authorities released a sketch of a man wanted for questioning in his death.

[18] Using Daron's car, Fautenberry criss-crossed through several states before finding himself at a party in Portland on February 23, where he met 32-year-old local bank teller Christine Anne Guthrie.

[19] She agreed to accompany John to the coastal Silver Sands Motel in Rockaway Beach,[5] where the pair were seen by hotel owner Anna Modrell.

[22] He bought a one-way ticket to Juneau, Alaska, arriving there on March 2 or 3rd, finding work on a fishing boat and moving into the downtown Bergman Hotel.

[23] On March 14, he was hanging out at a rural bar, having been fired from his job at the fishing boat, when he came across 39-year-old Jefferson "Jeff" Diffee, a miner who worked at the Greens Creek silver mine.

Three days after killing Diffee, Fautenberry, who had been under surveillance since his linkage to Joseph Daron's stolen car,[25] was arrested at his hotel room in Juneau.

[28] He was also briefly considered a suspect in the Dr. No murders due to his job as a long-haul trucker, and even questioned about the slaying of a fellow truck driver in New York, but was eventually cleared of suspicion.

[29][30] After a tape-recorded telephone interview with WKRC-TV, in which he confessed to four of his murders, Fautenberry attempted suicide by cutting his wrist with a razor, but was found in time and saved.

[31] During his imprisonment, Fautenberry was profiled as a serial killer according to the FBI's definition, with newspapers drawing comparisons to other murderers, such as Ted Bundy, Richard Biegenwald and the recently captured Eric Napoletano.

[41] On July 14, 2009, he was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, about two hours after the Supreme Court denied a final request to delay the procedure.