Update: After this article was first published June 6, Portland police said foul play was not suspected in the death of an unidentified woman whose body was found April 24 near Interstate 205 and Southeast Flavel Street in Southeast Portland. The remains of another woman, Clarissa Anne Hammon-Sweet, who died due to homicidal violence, were found in a rural area near Woodburn.
At least three of the women whose bodies have been found in Oregon and Washington in recent months shared similar circumstances and had frequented the same places in the months before their deaths, according to a source close to the investigations.
In particular, investigators are examining potential connections among JoAnna Speaks, 32, Charity Lynn Perry, 24, and Bridget Leann Ramsey Webster, 31, who all had been known to frequent Southeast 82nd Avenue and an area near the Clackamas Town Center, said the source, who is not authorized to speak on behalf of any of the half-dozen police agencies investigating the cases.
The source discounted a statement issued Sunday by Portland police that said the bureau “has no reason to believe these 6 cases are connected.”
“It was premature to state that these deaths are unrelated or related,” the source said. “Investigators always look for commonalities with unsolved homicides.”
[READ MORE: United by grief, families of slain Portland-area women search for answers]
Portland police did not respond to a request for comment about whether the bureau’s assessment was premature.
The “personal histories” of Speaks, Perry and Webster share similarities, the source said, but declined to elaborate.
It remains unclear whether a single perpetrator is linked to the deaths of the three women, the source said.
Speaks died of blunt force trauma in a homicide, investigators have said. Perry and Webster both died under suspicious circumstances, detectives said, but they have not released other information.
All died within about three weeks of each other in April.
Maj. Alex Gardner, who oversees the Oregon State Police Forensic Science & Pathology Bureau, said in an email Tuesday that state police prioritize forensic work and DNA analyses in suspected homicides but offered no timeline for completing them in these cases.
Speaks’ body was found April 8 inside a Clark County barn on an abandoned property in Ridgefield, Washington, about 22 miles north of Portland. Authorities determined Speaks, who lived in Clackamas County, died of blunt head and neck injuries.
Perry’s body was found April 24 by Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies in a culvert at East Historic Columbia River Highway and Northeast Tumalt Road, near Ainsworth State Park in east Multnomah County. The sheriff’s office has not said anything about the circumstances of her death, referring to it only as suspicious.
Authorities have said Perry, of Vancouver, was frequently seen near Southwest Washington Street and Fourth Avenue in downtown Portland at the beginning of March, an area where open-air fentanyl dealing and use has been rampant.
Webster’s body was found April 30 on Harmony Road near Mill Creek in northwest Polk County. Little has been released about the circumstances of her death, though authorities have said it’s suspicious. She was last known to have lived in an apartment in Clackamas County.
Three other women also turned up dead around the same time as Speaks, Perry and Webster.
The body of an unidentified woman was found April 24 near Interstate 205 and Southeast Flavel Street in Southeast Portland’s Lents neighborhood; Portland police said Sunday that foul play was not suspected.
Ashley Real, 22, of Portland, disappeared March 27 in Southeast Portland; her remains were found May 7 in the Eagle Creek area of Clackamas County. Investigators say her death is suspicious. She had previously lived in Clackamas County.
The body of Kristin Smith, 22, of Gresham, was found Feb. 19 in a wooded area near Southeast Deardorff Road and Flavel Street in Southeast Portland’s Pleasant Valley neighborhood. She had been reported missing Dec. 22. Officers and county investigators searched the area for evidence, and the Multnomah County medical examiner has not yet determined a cause of death, police said.
-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
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