Portland homicides rose again in 2003

PORTLAND — Whoever pulled the trigger did it just outside the bedroom window of Stephanie Burton in the predawn hours of Oct. 21, killing two people.

Burton awoke to the sound of gunfire, followed by a silence so profound that she could hear her heart racing.

Late Friday, police announced that they had arrested a man and a woman on accusations of aggravated murder for the deaths of Rick Krause and Carrie Ireland. But until they are formally charged through a grand-jury indictment, police do not consider the case solved.

A late-year rush of unsolved killings pushed Portland's homicide count to 28 in 2003, up from 23 in 2002 and 25 in 2001. Last year's number was six more than the nearly 30-year low of 22 recorded in 2000. Still, it is far from the city's peak of 70 in 1987.

The Portland homicides were the only ones reported in Multnomah County. There were 21 other homicides in the metro area: eight in Washington County; eight in Clark County, Wash.; and five in Clackamas County.

Like most years, a few cases stood out, and they still cast a shadow over the city's politics and collective spirit: Kendra James, the unarmed 21-year-old shot by a police officer as she tried to drive away from an early-morning traffic stop. Jessica Williams, a developmentally disabled 22-year-old who was tortured and killed by the homeless young adults she called family. Two men, Emanuel Mosley and Cameron Brandice Ware, whose strange killings unfolded within sight of their mothers' houses on the same October day.

There also was a collection of puzzling, unsolved slayings that continue to send chills through several areas of the city. Before sunrise June 10, the bloodied body of a woman known on the street as "Grandma Lawson" was found on a sidewalk in the Old Town district.

Sixteen days later, a young man was shot in the head while driving on Interstate 205 near Stark Street.

And in October, the year's only double homicide rattled the normally quiet Madison South neighborhood in Portland.

They are among 12 Portland homicides in which the killers were still on the loose at year's end. Excluding two police shootings, detectives solved 14 of the remaining 26 homicides, or 54 percent. The bureau's goal is to solve 75 percent of its homicides each year.

Sgt. Ed Brumfield, a homicide-division supervisor, said detectives were slowed by a chain of six killings from Oct. 12 to Dec. 1 that remain unsolved.

In all but one of the 14 cases solved by police, the victim knew his or her assailant; nine stemmed from domestic fights.

Another troubling number: One out of four of the year's homicide victims was a teenager, including Ireland, a 17-year-old runaway who survived the shooting long enough to go looking for help.

Ireland was found a block away from the car, on the front steps of a house.