PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police say a 30-year-old man who refers to himself as a "traveling castaway" has been arrested for vandalizing several headstones at Lone Fir Cemetery in Southeast Portland.
The vandalism was initially reported around 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 19. According to court documents, a witness called police after seeing a man kicking over and damaging headstones in the cemetery. Responding officers tracked down the suspect, who refused to give his name and was initially booked into jail as John Doe.
He was identified as Christopher Siewert several days later and is facing charges of criminal mischief, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
According to court documents, Siewert is transient and has been living "castaway style" for more than five years. He has previous convictions in Oregon and Washington for assault, burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing, and is described to have had "arrest cycles" in Arkansas and Arizona.
KGW reached out to the city of Portland regarding this vandalism earlier this week and was initially told the suspect was not a houseless individual.
According to Heather Hafer with the city's Office of Management and Finance, Siewert "was not affiliated with those living at encampments near Lone Fir Cemetery. We think it’s important to note that the vandalism was not caused by anyone living at that site. We did not know his identity until this morning, but we knew he wasn’t living on site."
Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery, a volunteer organization that focuses on preventing vandalism and cleaning up the area, released a statement regarding the vandalism saying in part, "Many folks are associating the vandalism with the closure of an encampment outside the entrance to Lone Fir Cemetery. Unless someone demonstrates a definite connection between the two events, we will continue to believe that correlation is not causation and that the two events are unrelated."
The statement is in reference to a large homeless camp along the cemetery's fence that was cleaned and cleared throughout the week. According to Mayor Ted Wheeler's aide Sam Adams, RVs and other vehicles in the area have also been posted for removal this week.