Becca Ray Harkins - Crater High School - Central Point, OR
N 42° 22.803 W 122° 55.347
10T E 506384 N 4691977
This dedicated tree and plaque placed by a local Kiwanis chapter reside on the Crater High School campus in Central Point, OR.
Waymark Code: WMKR1A
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 05/19/2014
Views: 3
Located at Crater High School is a dedicated tree. at the base of the tree exists a plaque that reads:
BECCA RAY HARKINS
FEB. 15, 1978 - MAR. 20, 1994"SHE DREAMS OF SPAIN"
TABLE ROCK KIWANIS - 1995
After doing an online search for Rebecca Ray Harkins, I located a few newspaper articles that highlighted her death. She was kidnapped and murdered by a man who ended up with a life sentence with no parole. One article reads:
Man who killed teen jogger get life sentence, no parole
MEDFORD - The man who abducted and killed a teen-age jogger near her rural home here last spring, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to aggravated murder. Richard Courtright, 30, of Central Point was spared a possible death sentence by admitting he kidnapped and shot 16-year-old Rebecca Ray Harkins on March 20, 1994. In a letter read in Jackson County Circuit Court, Courtright said he was sorry for killing the girl and blamed the drug methamphetamine. "I just hope and pray to God that her family will someday forgive me," he wrote. John Harkins, the victim's father, told Courtright in the crowded courtroom that he would like to see him dead. "'Becca' was 16 years old when you killed her," Harkins said. "She was a top athlete, an honor-roll student, a gifted artist. She brought joy and beauty wherever she went. "She was deeply concerned about problems caused by drug abuse and raised money for a local treatment program to help people such as yourself. She was a strict vegetarian because she did not believe in hurting any living thing. "You have your life, Mr. Courtright, murderer of my child. Neither I nor the state will take it from you. Becca wouldn't have wanted that. "I would have every second of it filled with the same kind of fear my daughter felt in her last moments. And I would have it filled with the same pain her family feels now." Courtright broke down in tears as he listened to Harkins. Rebecca Harkins disappeared while jogging near her home outside Gold Hill. Her body was found three days later along a logging road. The original charges alleged Courtright tortured and sexually abused the girl, who was training for the Pear Blossom Run in Medford when she disappeared. District Attorney Mark Huddleston said he was satisfied with the plea bargain because it would have been difficult to prove the facts necessary to impose a death sentence.