November 11, 1997 Linda Karlovich was raped and murdered in her Clackamas apartment. Within the next two months two other women were attacked and raped in their apartments near Karlovich’s home. Police soon linked these three crimes with a series of 12 rapes that had occurred in Clark County, Washington.

The rapist, called the I-205 Rapist in the press, who committed these crimes began in 1989. Until October, 1997, the rapes were spaced out over a long period of time, often as much as a year would go by between rapes. He would often attack his victims shortly after their husband or boyfriend left the apartment, leading police to believe that he picked his victims out in advance and watched them over a period of time looking for his opportunity.

In October, 1997 the rapist accelerated his pace, raping a woman in northeast Vancouver on October 25. He then attacked and killed Karlovich on November 11. He broke into another apartment in Clackamas on December 12, but his victim’s boyfriend, who was asleep in the apartment, woke up and fought him off.

Soon after Karlovich’s murder, Clackamas County police began to work closely with Clark County police on the theory that the rapist had become a killer. The I-205 Rapist terrorized Vancouver, Portland and Clackamas County for the whole winter. Any woman living in an apartment complex near I-205 felt that she could be the next victim.

Early in April, 1998 police investigating another rape in northeast Vancouver arrested Michael Wayne Gallatin, who was watching their investigation of the crime scene through binoculars from a nearby vacant house. Gallatin immediately became the main suspect, not only in the rapes, but in Karlovich’s murder as well.

It was an unexplained burglary in an apartment across the street from Karlovich’s home earlier on the night of the murder that tied Gallatin to her death. A paint-spattered cap that came from the burglarized apartment was found at the crime scene. A full palm print was found on the front window of the burglarized apartment. The palm print was an important clue, but without a suspect it was unusable. Once Gallatin was arrested police quickly learned that the palm print was his. DNA found at the murder scene also pointed to Gallatin.

In 1999 Gallatin was convicted of at least one of the Clark County rapes. He is currently awaiting trial in Clackamas County for Karlovich’s murder. If he is convicted it will be good news for the women of Portland. Not only will the I-205 Rapist’s reign of terror be over, but a potential serial killer will have been stopped.