I’ve been compiling a list of missing and murdered young women from the 1970’s in Oregon in a notebook, and I figured why not also include it here. As I learn of new victims I will update the list… over the years I’ve found dozens of names on various websites and newspaper articles about other missing and murdered women, but they’re scattered all over the internet in a million different sources… why not put them all here?

Janet Lynn Karin-Shanahan: (April 23, 1969, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Strangled and found in the trunk of her own car.

Beverly Annette Gayley: (June 15, 1969, Deschutes County). Her remains were found in a wind cave covered with a bedspread and rocks; she had a ligature wrapped around her neck. A significant amount of blood was found in Gayley’s home, as well as in the trunk of her car.

Niki Diane Britten: (July 16, 1969, Albany). Fifteen-years-old. Frequent run away.

Julie Dade: (January 21, 1970, Junction City). Twenty-Year-Old. Julie’s husband, Terry was later found deceased in the couple’s Maple Street apartment. At about 4:20 AM, neighbors in the area of the Maple Street Apartments heard a female yelling and a witness saw a man dragging a screaming woman into a vehicle before leaving the area. A nearby neighbor woke to the sound of an explosion, saw the car on fire and tried to put it out but it was too late.

Sandra Young: (February. 23, 1970, Sauvie Island). Her remains were found on Sauvie Island in 1970 but were not identified until February 2024; her murder remains unsolved.

Barbara Katherine Cunningham: (May 25, 1971, Eugene). Thirty-four-years-old. Found deceased in her apartment by her mother.

Barbara Ann Bryson: (July 29, 1971, Stayton). Nineteen-years-old. Was last known to be attending a party.

Anne Marie Lehman: (found on August 19, 1971, Josephine County). Seventeen-years-old. Disappeared from Aberdeen, Washington in the winter or spring of 1971; the circumstances surrounding her case are unclear, although it is rumored she was a victim of human trafficking. Her remains were found by a man and his son while they were out mushroom hunting off the Redwood Highway, close to mile marker thirty-five; it is unclear as to why she was in Oregon.

Josephine County ‘Jane Doe’: (remains found on August 19, 1971). Body found near the California border; believed to be female victim somewhere between fourteen and twenty-five-years-old.

Fay Ellen Robinson: (March 12, 1972, Eugene). Found deceased in apartment.

Alma Jean Barra: (March 23, 1972, Happy Valley). Twenty-eight-years-old. Found deceased in Willamette National Cemetery.

Beverly May Jenkins: (May 25, 1972, Cottage Grove). Sixteen-years-old. Her remains were found in June 1972 just off the I-5 roughly ten miles outside of Cottage Grove; she had been strangled to death. 

Jane Pellett: (June 7, 1972, Salem). Twenty-eight-years-old. Found deceased on a busy roadside on June 26, 1972.

Geneva Joy Martin: (June 16, 1972, Eugene). Nineteen-years-old. Found deceased on the side of the road by a farmer.

Rita Lorraine Jolly: (June 29, 1973, West Linn). Seventeen-years-old. Disappeared while out on a routine nightly walk.

Allison Lynn Caufman: (July 1973, Portland). Fifteen-years-old. Died as a result of head injuries after being shoved from a car moving at a high rate of speed.

Laurie Lee Canaday: (July 9, 1973, Milwaukee). Her remains were recovered on the pavement at the intersection of Southeast Scott Street and McLoughlin Blvd in Milwaukee, OR.

Susan Ann Wickersham: (July 11, 1973, Bend). Seventeen-years-old. Was found deceased from a gunshot wound on January 20, 1976.

Vicki Lynn Hollar: (August 20, 1973, Eugene). Twenty-four-years-old. Disappeared along with her 1965 VW black VW Beetle with IL plates and the running boards removed.

Gayle LeClair: (August 23, 1973, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Found stabbed in her apartment.

Delores Thompson and Gwendolyn Fulce: (September 8, 1973, Portland). A double homicide, twenty-four-year-old Thompson and twenty-one-year-old Fulce were found deceased in a home on North Ivy Street.

Deborah Lee Tomlinson: (October 15, 1973, Creswell/Eugene). Fifteen-years-old. Disappeared along with a friend on her sixteenth birthday. According to her sister (and my friend) Jean she was seen in California after she disappeared).

Virginia Erickson: (October 21, 1973, Sweet Home). Thirty-two years old, mother of six. Disappeared, most likely killed by her husband.

Suzanne Rae Seay-Justis: (November 5, 1973, Portland). Twenty-three-years-old. Was from Eugene, hitchhiked to Portland despite having a car of her own.

Belinda Cowden, along with her husband Richard and two children, David and Melissa: (September 1, 1974, Copper). The family were the victims of a still unsolved mass murder after they vanished from their campsite near Carberry Creek in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon; they were last seen on September 1, 1974, when Richard and David bought milk at the Copper General Store. When they never showed up for dinner at Belinda’s mother’s house later that day, their campsite was found deserted, with their truck, wallets, and a half-full carton of milk left behind. On April 12, 1975, two gold prospectors found their bodies roughly seven miles from the campsite: Richard was found tied to a tree on a steep hillside, and Belinda, David, and baby Melissa were hidden inside a nearby small cave that had been sealed up with rocks. Autopsies later revealed that Belinda and David had been shot with a .22 caliber weapon, while Melissa died from severe blunt force head trauma; Richard’s cause of death could not be determined due to the condition of his remains.

Joyce C. Hess: (October 18, 1974). Fifty-four-years-old.

Marion Vinetta Nagle-McWhorter: (October 1974, Tigard). Twenty-one-years-old. According to McWhorter’s sister, she had been traveling before she disappeared around the Western part of the US. Her body was finally identified in September 2025, but the case remains unsolved.

Becky Rae Martin: (February 15, 1975, Junction City). Twenty-two-years-old. Throat cut.

Leslie Michelle (seven-years-old) and Geoffrey Lyman (five-years-old) Brown. Murders took place on February 22, 1975 and both victims were found on March 12, 1975 in McIver Park, Estacada.

Margo Nerline Ascencio-Castro: (March 1, 1975, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Found stabbed in a motel room, possibly involved with a local motorcycle gang.

Ceceilia Louise Hostetler: (March 26, 1975, Eugene). Last seen leaving the Embers restaurant getting into a vehicle with another person whom she appeared to know. On October 30, 1998, an unidentified deceased female was found burned and stabbed in the forest near 24243 Bolton Hill Road in Lane County, Oregon; it was later identified through dental records as Ceceilia Hostetler.

Caroletta Spencer: (May 20, 1975, Sauvie Island). Seventeen-years-old. Spencer’s was a sex worker whose body was found on a gravel road on Sauvie Island in Oregon. She had been shot four times and most likely had been killed earlier that morning, as she was last seen at Fred’s Place Bar in Portland around 2:20 AM.

Wanda Ann Herr: (June 1, 1976, Government Camp). Nineteen-years-old. Few details about Herr’s life are available, but according to family members, she grew up in Gresham, Oregon, but did not live with her siblings and reportedly ran away from home multiple times as an adolescent. Herr was last seen alive sometime around June 1976 and may have been living in a group home when she disappeared; her upper skull and some miscellaneous bones were discovered on August 2, 1986, near two roads off of Highway 26.

Shirley Anita Wallace: (July 21, 1975, Eugene). Thirty-one years-old. Found, shot.

Tina Marie Mingus: (October 1975, Salem). Sixteen-years-old. Murdered, body recovered.

Cherril Sue Miller: (October 12, 1975, Portland). Twenty-eight-years-old. Few details are available in Miller’s case, but she had two children, whom she had left in a neighbor’s care that evening. One of her teeth in the front of her mouth is discolored or capped and she wears eyeglasses with thin bone rims.

Camille Karen Covert-Foss: (October 17, 1975, Hillsboro). Twenty-five-years-old. Found shot in her vehicle at her POE, in a Southwest Portland-area shopping center.

​Deborah McNoise-James: (October 28, 1975, Klamath County). Found deceased at the 97 Trailer Court with lacerations to her head, neck, arms, and leg, as well as trauma to her larynx.

Betty Johnson: (November 1975, Estacada). Nineteen-years-old. Not much is known, I only happened to stumble upon her name when searching for a different Oregon woman (Marion McWhorter).

Kim Charleson: (January 7, 1976, Cannon Beach). The twenty-two-year-old had been in college and may have been carrying a small amount of Canadian currency when she disappeared.

Cordelia Sheehan McMinn: (May 1, 1976, Portland). Twenty-six-years-old.

​Julie Ann Beardslee: (June 30, 1976, Astoria). After Beardslee failed to attend a regularly scheduled Bible study class in Astoria her vehicle was found on July 1, 1976, at Fort Stevens State Park. Her body was discovered by hikers on July 12, 1976 near Coffenbury Lake in Clatsop County, Oregon; she had been stabbed, and her throat had been cut.

Sharon Ryan: (December 16, 1976, Portland): Seventeen-year-old. Vanished going to buy eggs, her body was found near a parking lot in Portland.

Roxanne Marie Sims: (January 1, 1977, Portland). Eighteen-years-old.

Sandra Renee ‘Sandy’ Morden: (1977) Approx sixteen-years-old, her partial skeleton was found in Washington in 1980 and it’s believed that she died in the late 1970’s; she was identified in October 2019.

Karen Jean Lee: (last seen alive, May 26, 1977, Cornelius). Lee ran away with a male companion, fourteen-year-old Rodney L. Grissom. Her possessions and clothes were found by a logging crew sometime in November 1977 however her remains were never recovered. Grissom’s clothes and belongings found in same area, roughly a quarter mile away from Lee’s in November 1982; his remains have also never been found. (Thank you to my friend Ryan AuClair for this information).

Lliana Gay Adank: (June 1977). Sixteen years-old. Was found shot to death along with seventeen-year-old Eric Shawn Goldstrand at the remote Broken Bowl Picnic Grounds near the Fall Creek Dam located about twenty-five miles southeast of Eugene.

Cindy Irene King: (July 19, 1977, Grants Pass). Fifteen-years-old. Disappeared.

Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Ann Roberts: (July 25, 1977, Roseburg). Found August 9, 1977, formerly known as ‘Precious Jane Doe.’ Roberts was identified on June 16, 2020.

Margie Ann Fernette: (January 24, 1978). Fifteen-years-old. Found in Fairfield Elementary School.

Benita Gay Chamberlin: (February 23, 1978, Eugene). Twenty-four-years-old.

Floy Joy/Jean Bennett: (February 23, 1978, Beaverton). Thirty-seven-years-old.

Karen Etta Whiteside: (March 22, 1978). Sixteen-years-old.

Ann Marie Ellinwood: (April 15, 1978, Corvallis). Twelve-years-old, last seen walking alone ‘during daylight hours.’ Possibly a victim of Earl Patrick Chambers.

Stephanie Ann Newsom: (April 19, 1978, West Salem). Eleven-years-old. Remains found on April 25, 1978 near the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge: possibly a victim of Earl Patrick Chambers.

Elana Jacobs and Teresa Krause: (May 21, 1978, Astoria). Both girls were enrolled in the Tongue Point Job Corp. They were known to go into town to ‘party and socialize,’ which is most likely why they left the compound the night they were last seen alive; their remains were found near Del Rey Beach, Krause’s on December 3, 1978, and two days later Jacobs were discovered; they were most likely stabbed and/or strangled to death.

Finley Creek Jane Doe: (found August 27, 1978, Elgin). The remains of a pregnant woman between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five-years-old; detectives strongly believe she died between 1970 and 1975 and was six to eight months pregnant at the time of her death; fetal remains were found with her. She was found buried face down under a log, and evidence at the scene, including a coaxial cable, suggests she may have been strangled.

Diana Marie Kuhn*: (December 10, 1978, Portland). Twenty-years-old. Remains found in in West Linn, OR.* Thank you for Diana’s cousin Donna Mollema for informing me about her.

Christie Lynn Farni: (December 14, 1978, Medford). Six-years-old.

Pem Michelle Yates-Briggs: (January 1, 1979). Fifteen-years-old.

Janie Landers: (March 9, 1979, Salem). Eighteen-years-old; she slipped away from the Fairview Training Center in Salem, a residential facility for those with developmental disabilities and mental health problems.

Mary Jo Templeton: (April 1979, remains found on April 30, 1979, Redmond). Forty-nine-years-old. In April 1979, she was renting a room at the El-Rancho Motel when she disappeared; her remains were uncovered in several parts over the time period of a month in Mirror Pond and near the Newport Avenue Dam in Bend. The first remains (a thigh) were found by a utility worker raking intake grates at a dam on April 30, 1979. She had been dismembered with what detectives called a ‘surgical precision,’ leading to theories that her killer may have had experience as a hunter, butcher, or surgeon, butcher (or a combination of the three); she was eventually identified through dental records.

Daisy Motley: (May 8, 1979, Portland). Motley was a sixty-four-year-old, unemployed female who lived alone that had no apparent enemies. Someone anonymously called the manager of her apartment complex to her death and asked them to check on her because they heard a ‘disturbance’ coming from her residence. The last time Daisy was known to be alive was when she talked to her daughter at approximately 9 PM on May 7th.

Lisa Danein Boggs: (June 13, 1979, Salem). Boggs and her boyfriend, Randolph Robertson, left their home state of Missouri on May 7, 1979 and arrived in Salem, Oregon, on May 9, 1979, and lived at a transient camp on property near the KOA at 1595 Lancaster Drive. On June 7, 1979, Salem police were called to the KOA for a homicide, where they discovered that Randolph Robertson, had been killed by two shotgun blasts; Boggs was nowhere to be found. On June 13, 1979, her’ body was discovered in a creek 17.5 miles up Little North Fork Road off Highway 22E in Marion County, Oregon. Her cause of death was drowning, even though she had also sustained a blunt-force injury to the skull behind her left ear. She was found lying on her back, with her head submerged in eleven inches of water; it had been held in place by a large rock

Irin Marie Meyer: (July 20, 1979, Brookings). Twenty-nine-years-old.

Sheryl Wright: (no additional information at this time).