(The following appeared on the Democrat-Herald website on February 11, 2010.)
EUGENE, Ore. — Detectives of the Eugene Police Department are continuing their investigation into the homicide Saturday of an engineer of the Portland & Western Railroad.
Ronald Leo Langlois, 44, of Springfield was found shot to death at 4:47 a.m. that day near the railroad tracks at West Second and Cleveland streets in Eugene.
The Portland & Western operates a network of western Oregon rail lines including the yards in Albany and Millersburg.
About 100 of the company’s 160 employees attended a meeting in Albany on Wednesday to talk about the case and their concerns, and to meet with a grief counselor if they wished, said Mike Lundell, one of the railroad’s executives.
Lundell said today the police told the company they did not believe employees of the railroad are at risk.
Even so, to allay any concerns, Lundell said, the company was adjusting operations so employees would be working less during the night in Eugene.
Police do not believe the engineer was shot by a transient, he added, because transients typically do not carry guns.
Melinda Kletzok, a spokeswoman for the Eugene police, said this morning that an autopsy was done but investigators had nothing new to report.
In a press release earlier, the department said the victim was found by a train conductor, who was not considered a suspect.
On Monday the police said they planned to continue interviewing “various parties.” Police would like anyone with information or tips in the case to call detectives at (541) 682-8888.
Langlois started working for the railroad in 2003 after being employed at Monaco Coach Corp. in Coburg and Country Coach in Junction City as a painter, the Eugene Register-Guard reported. He became an engineer in 2005.
He is survived by his wife, Alicia, and three children aged 19, 16 and 9.
Company executives have met with the widow, made sure she would not miss a paycheck and assured her the company would help the family financially, Lundell said.