DATELINE Someone Was Out There: What Happened to AmyJane Brandhagen and Karen Lange?

53-year-old Karen Lange was jogging at Pendleton River Parkway on August 9, 2013 when she was brutally attacked by a man wielding a metal pipe. She somehow survived after laying there unconscious for 13 hours. There is surveillance tape footage of her assault, and police were also able to locate part of the weapon. They analyzed the DNA on the metal object and made a shocking discovery: there was the same DNA present at the scene of a murder of a hotel maid the year before.

On August 14, 2012, 19-year-old Amyjane Brandhagen was murdered in a motel at Travelodge, one of her two places of work. Sadly, Amyjane was nervous about working at the motel. Unfortunately, her worries about safety were not unfounded.

There was DNA found in Amyjane’s fingernails that had led to a dead-end before Karen Lange’s attack. The police had hundreds of leads that went nowhere, including a false confession from a man named Eric Torres, who claimed that he drove the getaway care for the supposed murderer, Ira Draper. Soon, police found that the two men were just seeking attention.

Once the DNA matched, Amyjane’s murder case had a chance to be solved.

These two connected attacks led the residents of Pendleton, OR to fear that they had a serial killer in their midst. Things got even more strange when it was discovered that the two women had known each other: they attended the same church. Were women at the church being targeted?

Police recognized the man in the surveillance footage of Karen’s attack as 23-year-old homeless man Lukah Probzeb Chang, who also goes by “Danny Wu.” They were familiar with Lukah, or Danny Wu, because they had run into him 27 times prior for violations like criminal trespassing, illegal lodging, and outstanding bench warrants.

Once they zeroed in on him, they didn’t know where to find him. After weeks of search, however, they got a tip that he was eating leftovers at the convention center’s kitchen. Police soon surrounded the video and Lukah Chang was apprehended after a state trooper saw his leg handing down from a stairwell ceiling at the center.

Lukah Chang pled guilty to guilty to murder and attempted murder and is serving 35 years in prison. He was a Marine Corps deserter who had settled in Pendleton because he had run out of money.

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