A campus security guard entrusted with student safety in a quiet Oregon college town has confessed to the brutal murder of a 23-year-old woman following a night out, triggering a multi-state crime spree and exposing a killer’s deadly obsession.
Kaylee Sawyer’s disappearance after a bachelorette party in Bend, Oregon, on July 24, 2016, sparked an immediate search. The 23-year-old dental assistant and Central Oregon Community College student had argued with her boyfriend, Cameron Ryehofer, and left their apartment to cool off. She never returned, and her phone went dead.
The investigation took a 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 turn when the wife of campus security guard Edwin Lara contacted police. Isabel Lara reported her husband had confessed to hitting a woman with his security vehicle. Officers searching the couple’s property found a green purse soaked in blood, containing Sawyer’s identification, along with clumps of blonde hair and a blood-stained rock.
Lara, a 31-year-old part-time officer for Central Oregon Community College, had fled. His wife, a Bend police officer, told investigators he had been withdrawn and described a graphic school project on the “Railroad Killer” serial murderer, a figure who used rocks as weapons. Co-workers revealed Lara had shown inappropriate photos and a fascination with dead bodies.
As manhunt intensified, Lara embarked on a violent rampage across Oregon and into California. In Salem, he kidnapped 19-year-old store clerk Andrea Moyer at gunpoint, handcuffing her and forcing her to pose as his girlfriend during a motel stay. He later shot wildlife photographer Jack Lacy during a carjacking attempt in Yreka, California, leaving him critically injured.
Lara then carjacked a vehicle containing a 17-year-old driver and his family, holding them all at gunpoint. During this chaos, he recorded a Facebook Live video, bragging about his crimes and referencing Sawyer. “She kept screaming and I had to silence her forever,” he stated on the broadcast.
His spree ended after a dramatic 911 call where Lara, speeding at 120 mph, confessed to killing Sawyer and negotiated his surrender. “I run her over… she was still breathing and then she was screaming and I decided to silence her forever,” he told the dispatcher. He was taken into custody on July 26.
In a subsequent interrogation, Lara’s story evolved from a claimed accident to a chilling admission of premeditated murder. He admitted picking up Sawyer in his marked campus security SUV, propositioning her, and then taking her purse and phone. After driving her to a secluded area, he choked and brutally killed her with a rock.
Kaylee Sawyer’s body was recovered on July 26 based on Lara’s directions. The medical examiner determined she died from blunt force trauma. Evidence in Lara’s shed and his own notes revealed a calculated act, not an accident.
In January 2018, Edwin Lara pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He received a second life sentence in 2019 for the kidnapping of Andrea Moyer. His confession was ruled inadmissible due to a Miranda rights issue, but the physical evidence was overwhelming.
The tragedy led to “Kaylee’s Law” in Oregon, mandating clearer distinctions between campus security vehicles and law enforcement to prevent similar abuses of trust. Kaylee Sawyer is remembered by her family as a vibrant woman, the eldest of five siblings and an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, whose future was stolen by a man sworn to protect her.