Accused serial killer Jesse Lee Calhoun has been indicted for the murder of a fourth woman, prosecutors say.
A grand jury indicted Calhoun for the November 2022 death of Kristin Smith, 22, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said during a news conference Tuesday.
It’s been about two and a half years since Smith’s remains were found in a wooded area in Portland after she disappeared in December 2022.
“I’ve always stayed hopeful that I would get justice for Kristin,” Melissa Smith, Kristin Smith’s mother, 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.
He pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the initial indictment.
The new indictment adds one count each of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse to Calhoun’s case.
He remains in custody in Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail, and his trial is expected to be held in 2027, authorities said. His defense attorney, Cameron Taylor, declined to comment.
Melissa Smith said she was “overwhelmed with emotion.”
“I stayed strong doing all I could trying to save my daughter,” she said, per local CBS affiliate KOIN. “And it was just unbearable to find out it was too late and needed help finding her. And I did everything I could to try to get answers and fight and search.”
The bodies of Perry, Webster and Speaks were found over several months starting in early 2023 — in wooded areas, in a culvert and under a bridge — in a roughly 100-mile radius in the Portland area, sparking concern that a serial killer may be targeting young women in the region.
Calhoun has also been named as a person of interest in the death of Ashley Real, a 22-year-old from Portland, who was found in a wooded area in May 2023, according to multiple outlets.
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
