MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Merrilee Cooley, 68, was found dead in the trunk of her car in January 2017 and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said Thursday it is now working with Portland police investigating the recent death of Marcine Herinck, whose body was found a car this week.
Cooley was reported missing Dec. 28, 2016 and her car was found Jan. 5 with her body in the trunk.
It had been parked at an apartment complex for about a week with the keys inside. The sheriff's office never determined a suspect and has not released the manner of death.
The body of Marcine Herinck, 89, was found Monday in a car pulled over by Portland police. The driver, Timothy Mackley, a level 3 registered sex offender, has been charged with murder.
The Oregon Medical Examiner's office has not positively identified Herinck's body, describing the effort as "complicated" but Portland police said that it likely is her. Herinck died of homicidal violence but police have not released a manner of death.
"She tried to always be happy and outgoing no matter what was going on," said Paul Mitchell, Cooley's neighbor. "You could go and talk to her about your problems and she'd try to cheer you up. She was always there for you, if you needed anything you could ask her and she'd do her best to help you.
"She didn't have an enemy in the park so we assumed it was somebody outside," Mitchell said.
Anyone with information about the case should call the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office at 503-655-8211 or 503-723-4949.
West Linn woman says Mackley 'groomed' her grandmother
A West Linn woman said her grandmother was ‘groomed’ by Mackley.
Billie Crampton was a businesswoman who lived in La Grande and died from natural causes at the age of 95. But before that, for at least 10 years, her granddaughter says Timothy Mackley manipulated Billie and convinced her to give him money.
“I was very emotional when I heard the name Timothy Mackley," said Judy Crow.
She said Mackley met her grandmother while he was in his 30's and she was in her 80's. He was locked up in prison on a 20 year sentence for sodomy. They met through prison ministries.
“He definitely groomed her to believe that he was incarcerated falsely, that his family had disowned him, she fell for him emotionally first,” she said.
Crow said she is speaking out now because she worries there are other older women who were manipulated by Mackley. She hopes they will talk with police.
She said he convinced her grandmother to send him money on a regular basis and sent her lots of letters professing love.
“She had torn out of a letter that he had written his vow to marry her when he got out of prison. And she had tucked it away in her wallet. That's how deeply she believed in him. And eventually I had to sacrifice the relationship I had with my grandmother to go to the extent of the conservatorship and the guardianship to keep the two apart as much as I could,” said Crow.