Fears grow over ‘serial killer’ as cops probe deaths of six women found in cluster of secluded areas over 3 months

SIX women have been found dead over the course of less than three months in one major US metro area, leading to speculation that there may be a serial killer on the loose.

Now, police in and around Portland, Oregon, are investigating whether the deaths are connected.

The bodies of the victims, who were all younger than 40, were discovered on roadsides, secluded areas and in woods in and around the city.

Five different local law enforcement agencies – the Portland Police Bureau and the sheriff's offices in Multnomah, Polk, Clark, and Clackamas counties – are looking into whether a single perpetrator is responsible for the deaths.

The body discovered most recently was that of Ashley Real, 22, who disappeared from Portland on March 27.

Her corpse was found on May 7 by a fisherman in a densely wooded area of Eagle Creek, about 25 miles southwest of Portland.

The first body – that of Kristin Smith, 22 – was discovered on February 19.

She was found in a wooded area in Portland's Pleasant Valley neighborhood after she went missing in December.

The second victim - JoAnna Speaks, 22 - was found dead inside an abandoned barn on April 8 in Ridgefield, Washington, about 20 miles north of Portland.

She died from blunt force trauma to her head and neck, according to the medical examiner in Clark County.

Speaks' death is now being investigated as a homicide.

"We are working with our partner agencies to determine if there are any connections between this case... and any others in the region," a spokesperson for the Clark County Sheriff's Office told the New York Post.

Speaks is the only one of the six victims whose cause of death has been revealed by investigators.

"I don't want to ever scare people, but the reality is there are women dying at awful numbers," her sister Robyn Speaks told KGW8.

The body of Charity Lynn Perry, 24, was discovered in a culvert in Multnomah County on April 24.

She was known to frequent an open-air drug market in Downtown Portland

A second unidentified woman was found on the same day as Perry.

Her corpse was located less than three miles from where Smith's body was found.

Authorities are working to identify the woman, who is believed to be a Native American or Alaskan Native between the ages of 25 and 40.

She had medium-length black hair, was over five feet tall, and weighed 135pounds.

The woman also had two scars on her lower left leg and two tattoos, a black music note with the letter V on the left side of her chest and a Buddha on her right upper back.

A fourth victim - Bridget Leann Ramsey Webster, 31 - was found on a roadside in Polk County on the afternoon of April 30.