PORTLAND, Oregon — A woman who claims to be the girlfriend of a "person of interest" in the deaths of four Portland-area women said she knew that he was familiar with at least two of them, according to an interview posted on YouTube.
That person of interest, identified by Willamette Week as a man named Jesse Calhoun, has been in law enforcement custody since June 6. He hasn't been charged in connection with the deaths of four women who have turned up dead since mid-February.
The first victim was Kristin Smith. Her body was found near Southeast Deardorff and Flavel in Southeast Portland. Charity Perry's body was discovered in Ainsworth State Park. Bridget Webster's body was found in rural Polk County. Ashley Real's body was located in rural Clackamas County.
Calhoun's girlfriend, identified as Krista Heinze Sinor, told YouTuber Velly Ray in a recent interview that Calhoun and Real had been dating off and on for about a year. She said Calhoun would give Webster drugs in exchange for sex, but Heinze Sinor did not know how Calhoun was connected to Perry or Smith.
"My first thought is that maybe a fentanyl overdose and he freaked out," Heinze Sinor told the YouTuber when asked if Calhoun was a serial killer. "He's a family guy. He seems like a family guy. He's really close with his family and he would do anything for them and stuff but like my kids ... he loves my kids and my kids love him."
Calhoun's arrest
In the interview, Heinze Sinor described how she didn't suspect anything about Calhoun's alleged connection to the deaths until law enforcement descended on them while they were fueling up on their way to meet a seller for an item on the marketplace site OfferUp.
That description lines up with video obtained by KGW from a witness of the arrest, which occurred June 6 as he and his girlfriend were fueling up at a gas station on Southeast McLoughlin in Milwaukie.
"There's craziness in the world," said the man who captured video of Calhoun's arrest, who preferred to remain unnamed. "You hope it doesn't happen too often. It was pretty nuts to see it happen in my backyard."
Calhoun did not give up easily.
"I don't know how he made it through the 10 officers but he made it through and across traffic and down to the river and hopped in," the witness said.
It was quite an effort to elude law enforcement, but it was unsuccessful. Deputies eventually arrested Calhoun.
"I was like, 'I wonder what this guy did,'" the witness said. "It seems whatever he did was really important — or required that much law enforcement, I should say."
At the time, Calhoun was arrested on parole board warrants out of Multnomah County. He's since been transferred to the Snake River Correctional Institution in Eastern Oregon after the commutation of his previous prison sentence was revoked July 3. His earliest release date is now listed as June 9, 2024.
He still has not been charged with any crimes in connection to the deaths of the four women.
"I don't want to see him come out from bars ever again," said the man who witnessed Calhoun's arrest.