The Portland Police announced Thursday they were able to link the man known as the “I-5 killer” to three Portland-area homicides from the 1980s.

Doug Altig, Courtesy Portland Police.

Randy Woodfield is serving life in prison at the Oregon State Penitentiary. He’s now linked to the deaths of Darcy Fix, Doug Altig, and Julie Reitz. Candy Wilson is Julie Reitz’s mother.

Julie Reitz, Courtesy Portland Police.

Wilson said, “The loss of a child, whether by disease, accident, or violence is devastating to a parent. Children simply should not die before their parents do. It is not the natural way and yet it happens all the time all over the world. There is no reversal to the outcome. So the best a parent can hope for is that something can be done to prevent it to happening to another parent.”

Cherie Ayers, Portland Police.

With older DNA technology, Woodfield was linked to the 1980 Portland murder of Cherie Ayers in 2005.

Darcy Fix, Courtesy Portland Police.

A new DNA technology called Magnetic Bead Extraction allowed the Oregon State Police Crime Lab to link Woodfield to the remaining three victims.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.