Six “Missing” Women

/by Angela Todd/in Crime, Homelessness

While the local police department had the audacity to lecture the general population about the supposed lack of connections among six deceased women who have been found since February, this has been released:

Kristin Smith: She went missing around the Mall 205/Gateway Transit Center in December of 2022. Her body was discovered off of 138th and SE Flavel (near a park and a large homeless camp) two months later. Her family was concerned about her being sex trafficked, and she was known to not have permanent housing. She had been known to frequent 82nd Avenue and downtown.

Charity Lynn Perry: Family said that she suffered from “extreme mental health issues, including schizophrenia.” Although from Longview, WA, she was known to frequent the infamous open
drug market at SW 4th and Washington in downtown Portland. Her body was found just off of I-84 near Ainsworth Park near Cascade Locks.

Bridget Webster: Having no permanent address, she was known to frequent Portland, Milwaukie, and Oregon City. Her body was found off Highway 18 near Mill Creek around the Sheridan, OR area, over 60 miles away from where she was known to hang out.

Ashley Real:  Nothing has been reported about her housing status. She was known to hang out around the Gateway Transit Center, which is near multiple homeless camps. She was last seen around SE 122nd
and Division. Her body was found over 15 miles away in Eagle Creek near Highway 224.

Joanna Sparks: She was a mother and the oldest of the women found. No information about is available regarding her housing status. She was found on South 5th Street in Ridgefield, WA, right off of I-5 in an
abandoned barn. The family says she had no connection to the area where she was found.

Unknown woman: She was found deceased in a tent off of I-205.

Similarities in the cases:

  • All of their bodies were found either near a highway, a park, or both, and dumped many miles away from their last known whereabouts.
  • Most did not have stable housing.
  • Most hung out in areas where drug dealing/use and/or sex trafficking are prevalent, and many hung out near large homeless camps.
  • 4 of the 5 women whose identities are known were in their 20s and were petite in stature.
  • It is presumed that the women had either mental health, drug dependency issues, or both.

Speculation:

If this is the work of a serial killer, he is shrewd enough to dump the women’s bodies in different areas and in different legal jurisdictions. He seems to have considerable familiarity with Portland and the surrounding area.  Like most serial killers, he seems to prey on the weak, slight in stature, and women in desperate situations.

Restorative Justice

/by Angela Todd/in Crime

There is little doubt that a criminal justice reform philosophy is embedded in Oregon’s governing. Let me provide some examples. Multnomah County isn’t funding corrections as several sections of the jail are closed. DA Mike Schmidt doesn’t advocate for victims or prosecution, and would rather engage in “restorative justice.” Our legislature passes bills such as SB 819 that cut sentencing by one-half. And let’s not forget, that our former Governor Kate Brown released over 1,000 inmates for clemency, more than all other governors combined in Oregon’s history. Kate Brown once said she was “saving lives” by giving these commutations.

What if an inmate convicted of a Measure 11 violent crime (which carries with it a mandatory minimum of at least seven years in prison with no chance of early release) was given clemency by our former Governor and signed off by DA Mike Schmidt? What if this man went on to murder multiple vulnerable women in the Portland area and dumped their bodies off of various highways? You may remember when Kate Brown released 41 inmates in 2021 for helping firefighters put out the 2020 state wildfires. This person may have been one of those who had their sentences commuted.

Do we tell the families of these young women what really happened, or do we hope that they are so stricken with grief that they don’t ask? Kate and Mike gave a violent criminal his freedom, but in the process, the lives of several vulnerable women were ended in the most horrific of means. I wonder if their families feel as if justice was restored. But, hey, at least we are compassionate and support criminal justice reform, right?

More to come.