Oregon man accused of killing 3 women and dumping their bodies is indicted on fourth murder charge
Portland, Oregon. – A man accused of killing three women in the Portland region and throwing their bodies was charged with fourth accusation of murder, authorities announced on Tuesday.
A great jury charged Jesse Lee Calhoun in the death of November 2022 of Kristin Smith, 22, said the district prosecutor of Multnomah, Nathan Vasquez, at a press conference. The new accusation act, which occurs about 2 and a half years after the discovery of the remains of Smith, adds a chief of accusation of murder and abuse in the second degree of a corpse in the case of Calhoun.
Calhoun was charged last year in the death of perry charity, 24; Bridget Webster, 31 years old; And Joanna speaks, 32 years old. He pleaded not guilty to the three counts of murder and abuse in the second degree of a corpse in the initial indictment.
He remains in detention in Inverness prison of the county of MultNomah, and his trial should be held in 2027, the authorities announced. His defense lawyer Cameron Taylor refused to comment.
Melissa Smith, Kristin Smith’s mother, said that she was “overwhelmed with emotion”.
“I have always had the hope of obtaining justice for Kristin,” she said at the press conference. “I thank each person who has not abandoned this case.”
Perry, Webster and Smith were found in Oregon, while Speaks was found in an abandoned barn in the southwest of Washington. Their bodies were found over several months from the beginning of 2023 – in wooded areas, in a sander and under a bridge – within a radius of around 100 miles (160 kilometers), aroused a prerequisite for a serial killer can target young women in the region.
Police and prosecutors shared little information in the case. The death of another woman during this period is still investigated, said Vasquez.
Calhoun was arrested in June 2023 for unrelated parole mandates and charged in May 2024 in the death of women. The accusation act occurred a few weeks before Calhoun was released from the state prison, where he was sent back in 2023 to finish a four -year term for having attacked a police officer, trying to strangle a police dog, burglary and other accusations.
He was initially released in 2021, a year earlier, because he helped fight forest fires in 2020 as part of a prison fire fight program. Governor Tina Kotek revised switching in 2023 when the police began investigating the death.
