A man investigated in the deaths of women in northwest Oregon has been indicted in 3 killings
PORTLAND, Ore. — A man investigated in the deaths of four women whose bodies were found scattered across northwestern Oregon last year has been charged in two of those killings — as well as the death of a woman whose body was found in Washington state.
A grand jury indicted Jesse Lee Calhoun, 39, on charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of Charity Lynn Perry, 24; Bridget Leanne Webster, 31; and Joanna Speaks, 32, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday. Perry and Webster were found in Oregon, while Speaks was found in an abandoned barn in southwest Washington.
“Today’s indictment against Jesse Calhoun marks an important step toward justice,” Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell told a news conference at the Portland Police Bureau. “We recognize that there have been many questions to this day and that their deaths have caused fear and anxiety in our region and among the families who have been waiting for answers.”
The charges came just weeks before Calhoun was set to be released from state prison, where he was returned last year to end a four-year term for assaulting a police officer, trying to strangle a police dog, committing looting and other charges.
He was initially released in 2021, a year early, because he was among a group of inmates who helped fight devastating wildfires in 2020. Gov. Tina Kotek revoked the commutation, which was issued by her predecessor Kate Brown last year when police began. investigate him into the deaths.
Court records did not immediately indicate whether Calhoun has an attorney representing him on the murder charge. Authorities have not disclosed what evidence they say links him to the deaths. The district attorney’s office said Friday that the charging document was still being finalized.
The families of the three have told reporters they have struggled with addiction or mental health issues.
The deaths of two other women — Kristin Smith and Ashley Real, both 22 — remain under investigation, the prosecutor’s office said.
The bodies were found over a three-month period from February 2023 – in wooded areas, in a culvert and under a bridge – within a radius of about 100 miles. women in the region. Speaks’ body was found in April 2023 in Clark County, Washington, but investigators have said they believe she was killed in the Portland area.
Last June, the Portland Police Bureau said that speculation about a serial killer was not supported by the available facts — but by July that had changed and authorities acknowledged that the deaths appeared to be linked.
Real’s body was the most recent to be found, on May 7, 2023. Her father, Jose Real, told The Associated Press last year that Calhoun had strangled her before, in November 2022. A Portland police officer took an initial report from Real and his daughter, and she gave Officer Calhoun’s name, but she was too scared to help investigators track him down, he said.
Perry’s mother, Diana Allen, and Smith’s mother, Melissa Smith, attended Friday’s news conference and praised the work of investigators.
“It’s very, very frustrating for us families that we don’t have answers,” Allen said. But, she added, investigators “were more concerned about charity justice than about my feelings. I have to have a certain amount of respect for that.”
Smith said she hopes her daughter’s case will eventually be resolved as well.
“We just keep going, we keep waiting, we keep praying,” she said. “Stay hopeful.”
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Johnson reported from Seattle.