Hunting Darren D. ONeill_ Robin Smith Mount Rainier and a Survivor

A vanished bride-to-be. A red Torino. A drifter with a teardrop tattoo. This is the manhunt that gripped the Pacific Northwest—and the FBI agent who refused to let it go cold.

On the night of March 28, 1987, 22-year-old Robin Smith left a bar in Puyallup, Washington, with a man she had just met. Her fiancé had left the party early. Robin stayed behind. She was supposed to be home hours ago. She never came back.

The man she left with called himself Herb Johnson. His real name was Darren Dee O'Neall—a violent drifter, a serial rapist, and a suspected serial killer who had been crisscrossing the country under a dozen aliases: Zebulon McCranahan. Larry Sackett. Mike James Johnson. John Mayeaux. He was a chameleon. He was a predator. And Robin Smith was his perfect victim.

Her body was found two months later, in the woods near Greenwater, north of Mount Rainier. Hikers discovered scattered remains—a skull, bones, folded clothing. The medical examiner determined she had been beaten to death with a blunt object, likely a claw hammer. She had been dead for weeks. Her family had been waiting for a miracle that was never coming.

But the manhunt was only beginning.

O'Neall fled Washington, leaving behind a trail of stolen cars, terrified women, and near-misses. He was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. A media blitz saturated the airwaves with his face and his aliases. Agents chased him across state lines—Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Utah—while he charmed his way into the lives of unsuspecting women, then vanished before they could call for help.

Then came the break that changed everything.

In Portland, Oregon, O'Neall abducted a 14-year-old girl named Heidi. He raped her, terrorized her, and held her captive. But Heidi survived. And her courage—her testimony—became the weapon that finally cornered a predator who had spent years slipping through the cracks of the system.

The FBI caught O'Neall in Lakeland, Florida, where he was living under yet another false name. He was extradited to Washington, where he faced first-degree murder charges for Robin Smith's death. But in a shocking courtroom twist, during jury selection in January 1989, O'Neall abruptly announced he wanted to plead guilty. He received a life sentence—27 years and 9 months, with the possibility of release after serving as few as 18 years with time off for good behavior. Robin's mother, Edna, was devastated. She had wanted a trial. She had wanted the death penalty. She had wanted the world to know what he had done.

O'Neall was later tried in Oregon for Heidi's kidnapping and rape. He was sentenced to 135 years. That sentence would run consecutively to his Washington life term. He will die in prison.

But the questions remain. What happened to Wendy Aughe, who vanished four weeks after Robin, her body never found? What about Lia Szubert, whose murder remains on the books for lack of physical evidence? O'Neall is suspected of killing six women in total. He has never expressed remorse. He has resigned himself to spending the rest of his life behind bars.

This is the story of how the FBI hunted Darren D. O'Neall—and how one survivor's testimony finally brought him down. It is a story of persistence, forensics, and the haunting truth that some monsters hide in plain sight.

This is The FBI Files. Press play—if you dare.

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