Hot on the heels of police making an arrest in the infamous Gilgo Beach murders in New York, authorities on the opposite coast may be zeroing in on another possible serial killer targeting victims in Portland, Oregon.
An inmate who became a local hero three years ago when he volunteered to fight the wildfires blazing on the west coast is now a person of interest in a serial killer investigation.
Hot on the heels of police making an arrest in the infamous Gilgo Beach murders in New York, authorities on the opposite coast may be zeroing in on another possible serial killer targeting victims in Portland, Oregon.
Police believe that the killer took the life of his first victim, 22-year-old Kristin Smith, in February.
The bodies of three more women -- Bridget Webster, Charity Perry and Ashley Real - were discovered in secluded areas over the next three months.
Just last month, the Portland Police Bureau said in a news release that it "has no reason to believe" that the deaths of those four women and two others were connected, but that all changed this week.
Four of those deaths have now been linked, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, and 38-year-old Jesse Lee Calhoun has been identified as a person of interest.
Calhoun was serving time on charges of car theft and burglary when he and other inmates began fighting the massive wildfires that tore through Oregon in 2020.
Then-Governor Kate Brown commuted the sentence of Calhoun and other inmates to express the state's gratitude for their heroic efforts, allowing him to walk free after serving just a portion of his sentence in July 2021. Calhoun “did not present an unacceptable safety, security, or compliance risk to the community,” officials said at the time of his release.
The first murder happened 18 months after his release.
Calhoun is currently back behind bars, having been arrested last month for a parole violation.
In a statement to Inside Edition, Brown said: “I am absolutely horrified for the victims, their families, and all those who have experienced these losses.”
