Suspected serial killer arrested in 1980s murders in Oregon

[webfact]

Suspected serial killer arrested in 1980s murders in Oregon
BY BNO NEWS

PORTLAND: -- A 55-year-old man identified as Homer Lee Jackson has been arrested and charged in a series of murders that targeted prostitutes in Portland in the 1980s, police announced on Friday.

Jackson was arrested on Thursday at his residence in Northeast Portland and later booked into the Multnomah County Jail. He is expected to be arraigned on Monday after being indicted on multiple counts of Aggravated Murder in the deaths of Essie Jackson, Tonja Harry, Angela Anderson, and Latanga Watts. All four victims were African American women who were working as prostitutes, with the youngest just 14 years old.

“Cold Case Homicide Unit detectives began investigating these cases when the unit began in 2004 and have worked closely with the original case detectives … to develop evidence in these cases that led to the arrest of Homer Jackson as the suspect,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. “Homer Jackson has been connected to all four murders through forensic evidence and/or other investigative information.”

Detectives have not yet released specific details about the investigation.

The first known victim was 23-year-old Essie Jackson, a prostitute who had last been seen in February 1983 on Northeast Union Avenue, which is now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Essie Jackson, who was the mother of a young child, was found dead on the afternoon of March 23, 1983, when someone walking in North Portland looked down a steep embankment and noticed a body.

Months later, on July 9, 1983, two people walking in West Delta Park, between a golf course and Portland International Raceway, spotted what appeared to be a person in the water. Emergency personnel rushed to the scene and discovered a young African American female face down in the water. She was later identified as 19-year-old Tonja Harry, who was working as a prostitute and had last been seen the night before she was discovered.

Full story: http://www.streetwisejournal.com/suspected-serial-killer-arrested-in-1980s-murders-in-oregon/11662/


-- StreetWiseJournal 2015-10-19

[NeilSA1]

It is really is the 'long arm of the law' when it stretches back more than 30 years.

[chuckd]

There is no statute of limitations on murder. Good on the cold case investigators if they have got their man.

[chickenslegs]

I have 3 comments:

First, what a great day to be a police officer when you can "collar" someone who thought he had got clean away with these vile murders for over 30 years.

Second, 4 murders in 3 years! How likely is it that he called it a day in 1987 and that was the end of his killing spree?

Third, Oregon has the death penalty - I would rather see him rot in a prison until he was dead.

[Credo]

I have 3 comments:

First, what a great day to be a police officer when you can "collar" someone who thought he had got clean away with these vile murders for over 30 years.

Second, 4 murders in 3 years! How likely is it that he called it a day in 1987 and that was the end of his killing spree?

Third, Oregon has the death penalty - I would rather see him rot in a prison until he was dead.

There is no way of knowing for sure that he did quit. There may be more murders that they do not wish to try him on because of lack of evidence.

It's easier if they have a relatively clean case to present to the judge and jury.

[metisdead]

A troll baiting post has been removed.