Wayne Adam Ford (born December 3, 1961) is an American
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
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* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
. Ford, a former long-haul truck driver, murdered four women from 1997 to 1998. He strangled them and dismembered three of his four victims. He turned himself in with a woman's breast in a bag in his coat pocket.
Background
Ford was born in
Petaluma, California
Petaluma (Miwok languages, Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 a ...
, the second son of an American father and a German immigrant mother. His parents divorced when he was 10. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the
U.S. Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...
, where he served six years before being honorably discharged in 1985.
In November 1980, he was hit by a drunk driver, causing a head injury and leaving him in a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
for nine days. According to relatives, his personality drastically changed after the incident.
He had two marriages, both of which ended in divorce. In 1981 he forced his first wife, Kelly Pletcher to get an abortion in
Napa, California
Napa is the largest city and county seat of Napa County and a principal city of Wine Country in Northern California. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the city had a population of 77,480 as of the end of 2021. Napa is a major t ...
.
Beginning in 1983, he had escalating problems at work with psychological decline, necessitating several hospitalizations.
Ford was diagnosed with
borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong ...
.
He had a series of scrapes with the law, including allegations of beating and robbing a sex worker in 1986 in
Garden Grove, California
Garden Grove is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, located just southwest of Disneyland (located in Anaheim, CA). The population was 171,949 at the 2020 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, ...
. In 1990 he was arrested for animal cruelty, for which he served a brief jail sentence in
San Clemente, California
San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...
.
Victims
Between 1997 and 1998, he murdered at least four women while working. At the time of the murders he lived in a trailer park in
Arcata, California
Arcata (; Wiyot language, Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok language, Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, Californ ...
working as a long-haul truck driver.
* ''Kerry Ann Cummings'' (25) - Killed in 1997. Body was discovered on October 17, 1997 north of
Eureka, California
Eureka (Wiyot: ''Jaroujiji'', Hupa: ''do'-wi-lotl-ding'', Karuk: ''uuth'') is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt ...
in the Ryan Slough. Cummings was listed as a Jane Doe until June 2023 when a partnership between the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, the
California Department of Justice
The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the California Attorney General (AG) which carries out complex cri ...
DNA Lab, and
Othram Inc., identified her body after building a DNA profile and finding and confirming a genealogical match.
* ''Tina Renee Gibbs'' (26) - Killed on May 16, 1998, near
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. Her body was found on June 2 near
Buttonwillow, California
Buttonwillow is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Buttonwillow is west of Bakersfield, at an elevation of ). The population was 1,508 at the 2010 census, up from 1,266 ...
.
* ''Lanette Deyon White'' (25) - Killed on September 25, 1998, in
Ontario, California
Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...
, then dumped her body near
Lodi, California
Lodi ( ) is a city located in San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County, California, in the center portion of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. The population was 62,134 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 cen ...
.
* ''Patricia Anne Tamez'' (29) - Killed in
Hesperia, California
Hesperia is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is located north of downtown San Bernardino in Victor Valley and surrounded by the Mojave Desert. Because of its relatively high elevation and the unique and moderate we ...
. Her body was found on October 23, 1998 in an aqueduct in
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...
.
Arrest and trial
Ford turned himself in; he walked into the
Humboldt County Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
Department on November 2, 1998, with his brother and had a woman's severed
breast
The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues.
In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...
in his pocket.
He confessed to having killed four women and is thought to have killed others.
He was found guilty of four counts of
first-degree murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
on June 27, 2006,
and was
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
in August 2006.
Currently, he resides on
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
at
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
In media
Multiple documentaries covered the case.
* In 2013
Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...
aired a 45-minute long documentary titled ''Killer Truckers'' about serial killer truck drivers, including Ford.
* In 2015 TV show
Most Evil
''Most Evil'' is an American forensics television program on Investigation Discovery, first aired in 2006, presented by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael H. Stone of Columbia University during the program's first three seasons, and by forensic ps ...
analyzed the Ford case in season 4. He was ranked 17 out of the 22 levels on the scale.
* In 2019, in a
Reelz
Reelz (formerly known as Reelz Channel) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The network's programming was formerly devoted to entertainment-oriented programming focusing on the Hollywood ...
TV show ''I Lived With a Killer'', Wayne's brother Rodney spoke about their childhood, how he learned about the murders, and convinced him to turn himself in.
* In 2021, in an episode of
Evil Lives Here
''Evil Lives Here'' is an American documentary television series on Investigation Discovery that debuted on January 17, 2016. This 60-minute true crime show spends each episode interviewing a family member of the highlighted murderer.
On August ...
Wayne's first wife, Kelly Pletcher spoke about their abusive relationship.
See also
*
List of death row inmates in the United States
, there were 2,414 death row inmates in the United States. The number of death row inmates changes frequently with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (through execution or otherw ...
*
List of serial killers in the United States
A serial killer is typically a person who kills three or more people, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines serial murder a ...
References
External links
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Wayne Adam
1961 births
1997 murders in the United States
1998 murders in the United States
20th-century American criminals
American male criminals
American people convicted of murder
American people of German descent
American prisoners sentenced to death
American serial killers
People with borderline personality disorder
Crimes in Humboldt County, California
Criminals from California
Living people
People convicted of murder by California
People from Petaluma, California
Prisoners sentenced to death by California
Serial killers from California