Portland ‘serial killer’ new: Jesse Calhoun identified as person of interest in four mystery deaths

Diane Allen, whose daughter Charity Lynn Perry is one of the four women whose mysterious Portland-area deaths police are investigating, says she knows little about where things are heading.

She told the Associated Press she only gets occasional updates from police.

“I’m in the dark about a lot,” Allen told AP on Wednesday. “But the detective and I understand why this is required. We don’t need anything messing up this investigation.”

Investigators in full-body suits spent days searching a woman’s apartment in Milwaukie, Oregon, as part of their investigation into the linked deaths of four women in the Portland area, a neighbour told The Oregonian.

The police cut out a piece of the couch and carpet in the unit, the neighbour said.

The apartment at the center of the search allegedly belongs to the girlfriend of Jesse Lee Calhoun, who is reportedly a person of interest in the police’s investigation into the deaths.

A woman claiming to be the girlfriend of Jesse Lee Calhoun has offered new claims about the investigation into four linked women’s deaths in the Portland area.

The unnamed woman, speaking to local YouTuber, said she was in a relationship with Calhoun, who is reportedly a person of interest in the police investigation.

The woman said Calhoun sold fentanyl and knew at least two of the women who were recently found dead, The Oregonian reports.

Police have not publically announced any person of interest or charges in the investigation, though law enforcement sources have told local media Calhoun is at the center of the case.

Police have not officially named a person of interest in the case or announced any charges.

Officials believe the 38-year-old has some link to the deaths of Kristin Smith, 22; Charity Lynn Perry, 24; Bridget Leann (Ramsay) Webster, 31; and Ashely Real, 22.

All four women were found dead within 100 miles of one another either near or on the sides of roads between February and May of this year.

Ariana Baio has the details in her full story.

(Calhoun, who is currently back in prison on unrelated charges, was slated to originally be released in the summer of 2022, before the susipicious deaths occurred. He hasn’t been officially named a person of interest or charged in relation to the deaths.)

Nonetheless, the Oregon Senate GOP has called Ms Brown “disgraceful” and a “soft-on-crime Democrat governor.”

As Covid raged through Oregon prisons in 2020 and 2021, Ms Brown commuted the sentences of nearly 1,000 people, focusing on those nearing the end of their sentences and those who were medically vulnerable.

The Criminal Justice Commission, a nonpartisan state agency, studied those released under the governor’s efforts, and found in 2022 that they were not more likely to commit crimes than the general formerly incarcerated population.

Oregon police have identified Jesse Lee Calhoun of Portland as a person of interest in the recent deaths of four area women that officials say are linked, according to the Associated Press, citing law enforcement sources.

On Monday, a group of nine Washington police agencies announced they had identified a person of interest in the deaths of Kristin Smith, 22; Charity Lynn Perry, 24; Bridget Leann (Ramsay) Webster, 31; and Ashely Real, 22. Police previously said the deaths, which took place between February and May, were unconnected.

Police have not publicly named Calhoun as a person of interest or charged him with any crimes related to the investigation.

Get all the details on the potential suspect in the investigation in our full story.

Jesse Lee Calhoun, the reported person of interest in the suspicious recent deaths of four Oregon women, had a tense recent encounter with law enforcement, according to law enforcement.

On 6 June, officers from multiple local sheriff’s departments and the US Marshals Service attempted to arrest the 38-year-old on a parole violation.

He then reportedly drove into the Willamette River and tried to escape before later being arrested, Willamette Week reports.

Critics on the right are attacking former Oregon governor Kate Brown for commuting the prison sentence of Jesse Lee Calhoun, a man reportedly being considered a person of interest in the suspicious deaths of four women around the Portland area in recent months.

On Twitter, the Marion County, Oregon, Republican Party highlighted a news story about the commutation, while commenters on the right lashed out at Ms Brown.

“The incompetent, evil former gov Brown released this man into society,” one account known as HoneyBadgerMom wrote on social media. “Never forget what these monsters did.”

As The Independent has reported, Calhoun was slated for release in June of 2022, but got out on 22 July, 2021, after the governor commutted his sentence for service on an inmate firefighting crew.

The suspicious deaths were discovered between February and May of 2023, likely after Calhoun would’ve been released on his original sentence.

There are times when the media is able to race ahead of what the police can say on a big story.

That’s the case now when it comes to the ongoing Oregon police investigation of four women who were found dead around the wider Portland area in recent months.

While law enforcement sources have told local media outlets that the deaths are murders, and the potential handiwork of a currently incarcerated Portland man named Jesse Lee Calhoun, the official story is much more spare at the moment.

Police have not yet referred to the deaths as murders, nor have they named Mr Calhoun as a suspect or charged him with any crime.

Jesse Calhoun, a Portland man whom police have reportedly identified as a person of interest in the recent deaths of four Oregon women, was let out of prison early by then-governor Kate Brown.

Originally set to be released in 2022, Mr Calhoun’s sentence was conditionally commuted, part of a group of 41 Oregon inmates given reduced sentences following their service in prison fire crews battling wildfires in 2020, per Willamette Week. He was released in 2021.

“I am absolutely horrified for the victims, their families, and all those who have experienced these losses,” Ms Brown told KOIN in a statement.