Jesse Lee Calhoun, an accused serial killer, has been indicted for the murder of a fourth woman, prosecutors say.
Calhoun was indicted by a grand jury for the death of Kristin Smith, 22, in November 2022, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez announced during a news conference Tuesday.
Smith’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Portland about two and a half years after she went missing in December 2022.
“I’ve always stayed hopeful that I would get justice for Kristin,” Kristin Smith’s mother, Melissa Smith, said at the news conference. “I thank every single person who didn’t give up on this case.”
Calhoun was indicted last year in the deaths of Charity Perry, 24, Bridget Webster, 31, and Joanna Speaks, 32.
In the original indictment, he pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and corpse abuse.
Calhoun’s case now includes one count each of second-degree murder and corpse abuse.
He remains in custody at Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail, and his trial is scheduled for 2027, according to authorities. Cameron Taylor, his defense attorney, declined to comment.
Melissa Smith expressed that she was “overwhelmed with emotion.”
“I stayed strong, doing everything I could to save my daughter,” she told local CBS affiliate KOIN. “And it was just unbearable to realize it was too late and I needed help finding her. And I tried everything I could to find answers, fight, and search.”
Perry, Webster, and Speaks’ bodies were discovered over several months beginning in early 2023 in wooded areas, a culvert, and under a bridge within a 100-mile radius of Portland, raising concerns that a serial killer is targeting young women in the area.
Calhoun has also been identified as a person of interest in the death of Ashley Real, a 22-year-old Portland resident who was discovered in a wooded area in May 2023, according to multiple sources.
Calhoun was arrested in June 2023 on unrelated parole warrants and indicted in May 2024 in the women’s deaths.
The indictment came weeks before Calhoun was due to be released from state prison, where he was returned in 2023 to finish serving a four-year term for assaulting a police officer, trying to strangle a police dog, burglary and other charges.
He was initially released in 2021, a year early, because he helped fight wildfires in 2020 under a prison firefighting program. Governor Tina Kotek revoked the commutation in 2023 when police began investigating him over the woman’s deaths.
