A man outside the Oregon Zoo who pushed a knife into the back of a woman as she was taking her daughters, 2 and 4, out of their car seats in July 2006 died in prison Sunday.
Jere Ryder, 66, was serving a nearly 70-year sentence at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution and died at the infirmary, state officials said Monday. The Oregon Medical Examiner’s Office has not disclosed a cause of death.
On July 26, 2006, Ryder approached a mother in the parking lot of the Oregon Zoo and told her to put her children back in the car if she wanted them to live, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported after his 2007 sentencing in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
He ordered the mom back into the car but she was able to escape, and employees from the nearby World Forestry Center helped her.
Ryder was a sex offender at the time of the attack, having previously been convicted of rape in 1974. But he had not registered as such for several years.
A psychologist who evaluated Ryder as part of the 2006 case and deemed Ryder at serious risk of reoffending later faced questions about his professional conduct.
