MESA, AZ — A Mesa man has been identified as the alleged killer in a decades-old double murder cold case.
According to an ABC affiliate, KEZI, in Eugene, Oregon, a high school couple was found dead on June 9, 1977.
KEZI says 17-year-old Eric Goldstrand and 16-year-old Liliana Adank had gone for a day of fishing, swimming and a picnic, but didn’t return when they were supposed to later that night.
A search was conducted and Adank’s body was found. She had reportedly suffered sexual assault and was shot to death.
Goldstrand was also found dead and had also been shot, according to Lane County Sheriff's Office.
DNA and evidence were collected from the scene, but it wasn’t until more than 40 years later that the DNA was narrowed down to a family with three possible matches.
One person in the family was reportedly eliminated through another DNA test, leaving two brothers living in Mesa.
KEZI says as officials were closing in, in February 2021, “the brothers got into a fight with each other. The younger one was hurt and police were called. Just before they arrived, Ronald Albert Shroy committed suicide.”
Months later, it was determined that Shroy was connected to the killings, solving the 44-year-old cold case.
Lane County officials say Shroy was a resident of the area at the time of the murders and was 23-years-old. He reportedly moved out of Oregon in the `1980s and had been living in Mesa since 2008.
KEZI says the motive in the killings will never truly be known, but the victims’ families are grateful to know the killer can’t take any more lives and that they have some closure.
