On July 6, 1957, 31-year-old Eleanor Bollinger, a Sunday school teacher residing in Mineral, Washington, went berry picking near her father's farmhouse but failed to return.

[1] On January 23, 1960, while working as a logger in Mineral, McGahuey was arrested for sexually abusing an underage girl and held on $5,000 bail at the Lewis County Jail.

While residing there, he began a romantic relationship with 32-year-old Loris Mae Holt, who lived separately from her estranged husband together with her 2-year-old son, Rod Cameron, at an apartment in Central Point.

He was sitting in a restaurant when he was spotted by Holt's estranged husband, Charles, who had recently been released from custody after being questioned as a suspect in the double murders.

[4] He waived his right to an attorney and a preliminary hearing so he could get a fast trial, but in the meantime, he was re-investigated as a prime suspect in the Holt murders, despite successfully passing a lie detector test.

[3] Due to the similarities between these murders and the Bollinger killing, as well as the fact he worked in the area at the time, detectives from Washington State were dispatched to Oregon to interview McGahuey about the case.

[5] While awaiting the grand jury hearing, which was delayed because a member was unable to attend, the gun used in Loris' murder was found in a loan shop in Redding, California.