In boxcars and rail yards, places a lot of us pass without a second glance, men were being murdered. Many were unhoused. Many were transient. Many were dismissed.

This week’s episode of Same Crime, Different Time examines the case of Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., known as the Boxcar Killer, whose crimes began in Oregon and spread across multiple states. It’s a story about violence, but also about visibility and the cost of indifference.

In November 1988, Deborah Lee Atrops vanished after an ordinary evening in Washington County, Oregon. She was 30 years old. A bookkeeper. A new mother. A woman navigating the complicated end of a marriage and trying to build a future for herself and her daughter.

Two days later, her body was found in the trunk of her car on a quiet dead-end road.

For decades, Deborah’s case sat unresolved. She was a name in a file, a question without an answer. Law enforcement suspected who was responsible, but the evidence wasn’t there.

Until it was. Listen to find out more.

In 1975, in a Soviet town defined by factory work and strict silence, Vladimir Sarenpya began a spree of violence that the state tried to hide.

This week on Same Crime, Different Time, we’re going behind the Iron Curtain to explore a case of “The Ripper” you’ve likely never heard of, who may have started in tiny Coos Bay, Oregon. We discuss the victims, the chilling “signature” left at the crime scenes, and how a regime that claimed serial killers didn’t exist eventually had to face the truth.