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Post by Graveyardbride on Jun 13, 2023 12:47:36 GMT -5
Are Portland Women Victims of Serial Killer or Liberal Policies?So far this year, the remains of six women have been recovered in and around Portland, Oregon, leading some to believe a serial killer is operating in the area. The first body was that of Kristin Smith, 22, discovered on February 19. Four additional corpses, those of Joanna Speaks, 32, Charity Perry, 24, Bridget Webster, 31, and an unidentified woman, were found in April, and on May 7, Ashley Real, 22, was discovered.
In addition to the six bodies, the number of missing women and girls in the region has increased exponentially in the last three years. According to state authorities, there were 46 open cases of missing women and girls at the end of calendar year 2022, and Portland police reported investigating a total of 489 missing-person reports during the same time period.
While a serial killer is a possibility, of the bodies found thus far, only one, that of Joanna Speaks, upon which there was evidence of head and neck trauma, has been declared a homicide. Sparks was discovered in an abandoned barn 22 miles north of Portland.
Some of the disappearances are likely a result of Portland’s liberal polices on homelessness and illicit drug use. Commenting on the cases, Joseph Giacalone, adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired New York police sergeant, said, “You can’t have these tent cities and these open-air drug markets, which only breed this kind of behavior. It doesn’t need to be a nefarious reason, doesn’t have to be a homicide.”
He is of the opinion more bodies will be found. Often, he observed, when a user overdoses, his or her fellow users panic and attempt to conceal the body. “If you think that these are the only six bodies in that area, I think you’d be mistaken,” he continued. “There needs to be a full investigation, including cadaver dogs and everything else.”
Nonetheless, Giacalone added, “If a serial killer was involved in any of this, he or she has the perfect cover. We have people coming from different countries, different parts of the state, the open-air drug scene, maybe prostitution, and all these other things, and you have the city that has the ‘abolish the police’ movement. Talk about a serial killer’s sweet spot.
“If you look at the history of serial killers,” he explained, “they always prey on the most vulnerable, and specifically people who are drug users, homeless or prostitutes because they’re transient. People aren’t really looking for them after a certain period of time, and the groups that those individuals hang around with, whether it’s the drug scene or the prostitution scene, are not really that friendly with the police.”
Charity Perry’s corpse, found April 24 inside a culvert at Ainesworth State Park 35 miles east of Portland, seems to prove some of Giacalone’s theories. She had a history of both mental health issues and substance abuse, and Diana Allen, her mother, believed she had been living in a tent in a homeless encampment in Vancouver, Washington. Perry was last seen at an open-air fentanyl market in Portland, where she overdosed. She was taken to a hospital and revived with Narcan, but according to her mother, she was released without any verification of her address, and hospital personnel failed to notify her emergency contact. “I had been trying to find her, but every time I went to the tent she was staying at, she wouldn’t be there,” the mother told a reporter. “At first, I didn’t know she went to Portland till the detective informed me of this. They can’t give me a day of death, but are pretty sure it was April.” Allen believes the people who were doing drugs with her daughter transported her body to the park and concealed it inside the culvert after she overdosed.
Although some of the deaths are suspicious, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) is attempting to quash any “online rumors” concerning a serial killer, claiming media posts and news articles are spreading “anxiety and fear in our community” that aren’t “supported by the facts available at this point.”Sources: Michael Ruiz, Fox News, June 13, 2023, and Peter Charalambous, KATU, June 8, 2023.
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Post by pat on Jun 13, 2023 14:21:41 GMT -5
Because there was trauma found on the body of one of the women, I'd say it's a combination of the two. It would be easy for a serial killer to take advantage of Portland's liberal polices because if he smothered some drug addict he picked up and dumped her body in a place where it wouldn't be found for a while, police would just assume she OD'd and he'd get away with it.
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Post by snowfairy on Jun 13, 2023 19:30:51 GMT -5
A few weeks ago, we drove through Portland on our way to visit relatives in northern California, and it was like driving through a trash dump. The homeless had their tents set up on the sidewalks, and their shopping carts and possessions were all over the place. We saw people using crack pipes, shooting up and drinking out in the open. They live like animals. If they need to use the bathroom, they just unzip their fly or pull down their pants wherever they happen to be. It was so disgusting that on the way back, we drove miles out of our way to avoid Portland.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 14, 2023 19:40:24 GMT -5
Yeah it is a mess. We don't go into Portland unless we have to.
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Post by serena on Jun 15, 2023 8:46:15 GMT -5
Yeah it is a mess. We don't go into Portland unless we have to. |
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jun 15, 2023 17:47:21 GMT -5
Yeah it is a mess. We don't go into Portland unless we have to. I live in West Linn, which is about 15 miles south of Portland. |
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 18, 2023 21:09:17 GMT -5
Person of Interest Named in Deaths of Four Portland WomenAlthough the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) recently denied there was a serial killer operating in the area and accused the media and online rumors for spreading “anxiety and fear” concerning the deaths of several women, it has now been determined some of the cases are connected. “Investigators and prosecutors from multiple law enforcement agencies have been working collaboratively ... and they have determined that there are links between four cases: Kristin Smith, Charity Perry, Bridget Webster and Ashley Real,” the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office announced.
And not only are the deaths of these four women linked, there’s a person of interest: Jesse Lee Calhoun (above), 38, a man with a long criminal history who is currently in custody on unrelated charges.
According to Oregon Department of Corrections records, in 2019, Calhoun was charged with three counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle, one count of assaulting a public safety officer, and one count of first-degree burglary. However, he resisted apprehension and when a SWAT team arrived at his residence to arrest him, he physically resisted, repeatedly kicking one officer and chocking a K9 (police dog) in the process, an indication he was a volatile and dangerous individual.
Nonetheless, in spite of the additional charges, he received a light sentence. He was initially due for release in June 2022, but in 2021, Gov. Kate Brown, who was in office at the time, signed a commutation order granting clemency to specific prisoners who met certain criteria, and Calhoun was among them. He was released July 22, 2021.
Prior to his 2019 convictions, Calhoun was imprisoned from 2009 through 2011 for a 4th-degree assault.
For reasons unknown at this time, a request to revoke Calhoun’s 2021 commutation status made its way to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk and she revoked her predecessor’s commutation. Calhoun was taken into custody and will remain incarcerated until June 9, 2024.
It is unclear how Calhoun was connected to the women’s deaths, however, according to a spokesperson in the DA’s office, he has been “linked to all four” cases.
Sources: Andrew Selsky, WABC, July 17, 2023; Court TV, July 18, 2023, The Guardian, July 17, 2023.
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Post by madeline on Jul 19, 2023 6:04:45 GMT -5
The police are too quick to dismiss what they call “rumors.” While liberal illicit drug policies are killing 10’s of thousands, if drugs were killing these people, there would be close to an equal number of males and females, not all women.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Jul 19, 2023 17:17:58 GMT -5
There was another woman's body found in a vacant property that is for sale last Monday, the 10th, in Wilsonville, a city about 10 miles away from me. I had wondered if this was another victim of the serial killer. I don't know how long the body was there before they found it. They haven't said it is connected, but it could be. I don't know exactly when Calhoun is was taken into custody, but he could have killed her before then. They have ruled the death as "homicidal violence". www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/07/police-id-woman-found-dead-on-vacant-property-near-wilsonville.html |
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