Police Swap Notes On Murder Suspect

NEWBERG, Ore.

Investigators from Canada to California are comparing notes on slayings that might be linked to a Newberg trucker.

Scott William Cox, 28, is charged with murdering two Portland prostitutes. He is a possible suspect in as many as 20 homicides.

More than 50 investigators from California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia gathered in Seattle last week to exchange information.

"During the meeting as each agency shared information about murder cases in its area," said Newberg Police Chief David Bishop, "t became obvious that many similarities exist in the method and profile of the murders."

The Washington attorney general's office will act as a clearinghouse for information obtained by the agencies in their investigations. The department will feed the information into a computer system.

Bishop said the agencies involved in the meeting asked not to be identified.

Cox is charged with killing two Portland women: Reena Ann Brunson, 34, on Nov. 24, 1990, and Victoria Rhone, 32, on Feb. 19, 1991.

Newberg police were notified by Seattle police last summer that a man known as Seth Cutter, one of Cox's aliases, was a suspect in an assault and attempted murder investigation.