Deaths of 4 Women in 3 Months Are Linked, Say Authorities in Oregon

The deaths of four women whose bodies were found in Oregon between February and May are related, according to authorities.

The four women — Kristin Smith, 22, Charity Lynn Perry, 24, Bridget Webster, 31, and Ashley Real, 22 — were found in Northwest Oregon, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement on Monday.

“Investigators and prosecutors from multiple law enforcement agencies have been working collaboratively,” the DA said in the statement, adding that officials “from nine different law enforcement agencies, have been in regular communication and have been working collaboratively on these investigations for several months.”

No charges have been made in the case, but officials “have interviewed multiple people in connection with these cases and have identified at least one person of interest that is linked to all four of the decedents,” the DA said.

The Oregon State Medical Examiner has not yet determined how or why each of the four women died, according to the statement.

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Kristin was reported missing to the police in Gresham on Dec. 22, 2022, and her body was the first to be discovered in a wooded area in a suburb southeast of Portland, according to CBS News. 

“It’s quite like a piece of you is missing, that's really the only way you can describe it,” Hailey Smith, Kristin’s sister, told KPTV in February.

Multiple sources from various agencies have confirmed that Jesse Lee Calhoun, 38, is the person of interest and is now in custody, CBS Portland affiliate KOIN-TV reports.

The connection between Calhoun and the four deaths is still unknown, but he has a long criminal record, the latter outlet said, adding that the Department of Corrections charged him with “three counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle, one count of assaulting a public safety officer and one count of first-degree burglary” in 2019.

“I am absolutely horrified for the victims, their families, and all those who have experienced these losses,” Kate Brown, who was Oregon’s governor in 2021, said in a statement, according to the outlet.