Police are investigating whether the deaths of six women in Oregon are connected to a possible serial killer, according to reports.
This comes after the bodies of the six women were found within 100 miles of each other on the sides of roads in the woods around Portland from February through May.
Five different law enforcement agencies are looking into the deaths of several women, collaborating to determine if the cases are linked and caused by a single perpetrator, KGW8 reported.
One recent case involves the death of 22-year-old Ashley Real, who was found in a heavily wooded area near Eagle Creek after being last seen at a transit center in late March.
Another woman, Joanna Speaks, disappeared in late March and was later found dead in a rural area of Clark County, with her cause of death being blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Hers is the only cause of death that has been revealed by authorities.
“I don’t want to ever scare people, but reality is there are women dying at awful numbers,” Joanna’s sister, Robyn Speaks, told the local publication. “With each one, we as a family, we’ve talked about it, shared it, looked at the details. We’ve talked to the detectives to see if there are any similarities.”
A spokesperson for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said that its detectives are investigating possible connections with the mysterious deaths.
“As we do with all investigations of this nature, our detectives are following up on every lead in this case, including several tips that are coming in from the public and comments being made on social media,” the spokesperson told The New York Post. “We are working with our partner agencies to determine if there are any connections between this case in Clackamas County and any others in the region.”
As for the other remains, Bridget Webster’s were found in Polk County on April 30, while Charity Perry’s body was found in Ainsworth State Park on April 24. Perry had disappeared in early March.
Also on the same day, an unidentified Native American woman’s body was discovered near Interstate 205 and Southeast Flavel Street in Portland. 22-year-old Kristin Smith also was found dead on Feb. 19 near Southeast Deardorff Road and Flavel Street in Portland. She had been missing since December 2022.
