Six women – most with connections to the greater Portland area and all under the age of 40 – have been found dead within 100 miles of each over the past three months – most in wooded or secluded rural areas.
It is unclear what, if anything, connects the womens’ deaths and disappearances, which are being investigated by the Portland Police Bureau and sheriff’s offices in Multnomah, Polk, Clark and Clackamas counties.
All of the women were believed to have lived in or frequented Oregon. Two bodies were found on the same day, and two of the women were found dead less than three miles apart in Southeast Portland.
Portland police spokesperson Sgt. Kevin Allen said the Police Bureau has been fielding questions about the six deaths, but can only speak about the two it is investigating.
Below is a timeline of when the women were found:
Feb. 19: Kristin Smith, 22, of Gresham
Smith was reported missing Dec. 22. Portland police officers responded Feb. 19 to a report of human remains found in a wooded area near Southeast Deardorff Road and Flavel Street in Southeast Portland’s Pleasant Valley neighborhood. The Police Bureau identified the body as Smith on May 25.
Officers and county investigators searched the area for evidence, and the Multnomah County medical examiner has not yet determined a cause of death, police said.
April 8: JoAnna Speaks, 32, of Oregon
Police and firefighters in Clark County found Speaks dead inside a barn on April 8 at an abandoned property in Ridgefield, Washington, about 22 miles north of Portland. Officials responded just before 6 p.m. to a report of a dead person at the property near the 800 block of South 5th Street in Ridgefield.
The county medical examiner determined Speaks died of blunt head and neck injuries.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death as a homicide and said Speaks’ body was moved to the location where it was found.
April 24: Charity Lynn Perry, 24
Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies found Perry’s body shortly after 1:30 p.m. on April 24 in a culvert at East Historic Columbia River Highway and Northeast Tumalt Road, near Ainsworth State Park in east Multnomah County. The sheriff’s office has not released additional information, citing an ongoing suspicious death investigation.
Perry, 24, was frequently seen near Southwest Washington Street and Fourth Avenue in downtown Portland at the beginning of March, the sheriff’s office said. That area is home to the Washington Center building, the site of a former open-air fentanyl market that was cleared by police earlier in April after 11 people overdosed in one night in that area – three fatally.
April 24: Unidentified woman
Officials found a woman dead April 24 near Interstate 205 and Southeast Flavel Street in Southeast Portland’s Lents neighborhood – less than three miles from where Smith’s body was found, and the same day officials found Perry’s body in east Multnomah County.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office is seeking the public’s help in identifying the woman, who was possibly Native American or Native Alaskan between the ages of 25 and 40, county officials said. She had black, medium-length hair, was just over 5 feet tall, weighed 135 pounds and had two large scars on her left lower leg.
Officials say the woman had two noticeable tattoos: a black music note with the letter V on the left side of her upper chest and a depiction of Buddha on her right upper back. The woman was found wearing rings and bracelets, a green long sleeve shirt, a black and white zip-up jacket, jeans and black and white Adidas cleats.
April 30: Bridget Leann Ramsey Webster, 31, of Milwaukie
Officials found Webster’s body shortly before 2:30 p.m. on April 30 on Harmony Road near Mill Creek in northwest Polk County. She was known to frequent the Portland metro area, particularly Portland, Oregon City and Milwaukie, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the death as suspicious.
May 7: Ashley Real, 22, of Portland
Real disappeared March 27 in Southeast Portland and was last seen leaving a fast food restaurant in the 12000 block of Southeast Division Street, Portland police said.
On May 7, a man fishing at a pond in the 29000 block of Southeast Judd Road in the Eagle Creek area called 911 after seeing human remains in the heavily wooded area. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office identified the body May 31 as Real’s, and is investigating the suspicious death.
