PORTLAND, Ore. — Detectives with the Washington County Sheriff's Office are seeking information on two decades-old cases they believe are related: the disappearance of a man and the unsolved murder of another.
52-year-old Paul St. Claire disappeared in 1996. He was living in the Portland metro area when he was reported to be "missing under suspicious circumstances."
In the course of the investigation that year, authorities discovered that St. Claire's real name was Lloyd Adam Buzzard, and that he had lived under the alias Paul St. Claire for decades, since the early 1970s.
The last person believed to have seen St. Claire was Robert Stroh, someone who St. Claire had become involved with through partnerships in various businesses throughout the Portland area. Stroh was known to have multiple aliases as well, and had an extensive criminal past. His reputation was that he was a "violent and dangerous person," Washington County detectives said.
St. Claire may have developed a friendship with a female relative of Stroh that lived with him at the time, and that may have contributed to St. Claire's disappearance, detectives said, though it's unclear how.
Detectives believe St. Claire's disappearance may be related to the murder of Stroh's brother, David, that is believed to have happened sometime that same year.
About a week after St. Claire went missing, the Washington County Sheriff's Office began investigating the sexual assault of a teenage girl. It led them to David Stroh, who was then indicted by a Washington County grand jury for the sexual assault.
David Stroh then disappeared, and a warrant was issued for his arrest but state and federal investigators were unable to find him. David, like his brother and St. Claire, also was known to have other aliases.
Robert Stroh told investigators at the time that his brother may have gone to Wyoming.
Later, detectives spoke with a person who remembered driving David Stroh to a business in Clackamas. The driver said when they arrived at the business, Robert Stroh was waiting there. That was the last time David Stroh was seen alive.
In November 1997 and May 1998, authorities found skeletal remains of a man who died by homicide in a remote area of Grant County. Investigators said the body had been there since May or June of 1996. In 2019, thanks to advanced genetic genealogy, the victim was identified as David Stroh.
Robert Stroh died in 2013.
No one has ever been charged with a crime in either case.
Detectives would like to hear from anybody with information related to the disappearance of St. Claire — formerly known as Lloyd Buzzard — or the murder of David Stroh, who also had the alias Marshall Bond. Please contact Detective Tim Miller at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 503-846-2690.
