OR - Dana Crippen, 50, homeless, murdered, Oregon City, 25 Nov 2011 *arrest*

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pb...107/111300384/1009/NEWS01&nav_category=NEWS01

OREGON CITY — A 50-year-old woman who said she spent most nights last winter outdoors and was well-known among the homeless people of Eugene was slain last week beside a bicycle path north of Oregon City, sheriff’s officials said.


Authorities wouldn’t say how Dana Crippen was killed but described it as “traumatic homicidal violence.”

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Ashland connection?


Police in Oregon City and Ashland said that based on the circumstances of the slayings they doubted there was a connection between Crippen’s death and the recent slaying of a 23-year-old Ashland grocery clerk on a bicycle path. But the agencies noted they haven’t ruled out the possibility.

Click to expand...

Current thread for Ashland case.


OR ALERT: David Michael Grubbs, Bike Path Murder, Ashland - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

And we're still missing cyclist Mark Bosworth....

www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149368

remind me not to ride a bike in Oregon....... lord.

These 3 cases are so vastly different (other than a bike path) - but it's hard to avoid speculating some sort of potential connection.

http://www.kptv.com/story/16143411/women-found-along-bike-path-was-killed-say-investigators

[QUOTE"I knew her a long time ago. She had one of the brightest inner lights of kindness you could know. She gave freely regardless of her circumstances. She was miscast in this world. She should have been in the world of the Arts, maybe as a writer. Instead, she got dealt a bad hand from birth, and could never really overcome it over the years. It led to homelessness. But even there, she never lost her humanity. She would give in spite of the cost to herself. That's why I can't believe this, that this person was left alone at the end. With no one. What's wrong with us, as a society? We give the homeless that monicker, and just move on. Discarded. Dana was far, far more than her circumstances. She was a beautiful person who never lost her humanity, in spite of where she was at in life. This was no ordinary person. I pray, Dana, you have the peace you always wanted."QUOTE] - quoted - written by someone (Tony) that knew Dana Crippen.

HAPPY VALLEY, OR (KPTV) -
A woman found dead along a Happy Valley bike path was the victim of "traumatic homicidal violence," said Clackamas County sheriff's deputies.

Dana Crippen, 50, was previously known to be homeless and living in the Eugene area, according to investigators.

A passerby flagged down a deputy around 1 a.m. Friday to report an injured woman on the bike path under Johnson Creek Boulevard, west of I-205.

Investigators believe Crippen was killed in the area around that time. They do not know why she was in Clackamas County.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office would like to hear from people with information about this crime or anyone who was around the bike path late Thursday or Friday before 1 a.m.

Call the confidential tip line at 503-723-4949, or by using the online e-mail form.


Reference Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Case #11-35196.


The public can also submit tips through text messages. Send the text to CRIMES (274637), with the keyword CCSO as the first word in the message body.

Copyright KPTV 2011. All rights reserved.



http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Woman-found-dead-on-Happy-Valley-bike-path-now-a/mwSLX0Fv4UiOdnu_PbhqfA.cspx


http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/sheriff/tip.htm

Don't forget another victim Troy Dean Carney was murdered in Central Point, OR off the bike path. He was homeless as well, I believe.

Troy was not homeless. He worked loading & unloading tractor trailers. He was camped near the pilot truck stop just off the bike path on the Bear Creek Greenway. He was camped there while waiting to get more work on another truck hauling funiture & make his way back to the east coast. He was killed the evening of Sept. 1st. and was supposed to leave town that next morning.
News reports keep saying he was a homeless man living on the Bear Creek Greenway. Those reports were not true. Troy's mom..

Portland man arrested in death of Dana Crippen, homeless woman killed on bike path near I-205



The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office arrested Larry James Mullins Jr. Friday afternoon in the murder of Dana Crippen, a homeless Eugene woman whose body was found last month on a bike path near Southeast Johnson Creek Boulevard and Interstate 205.Detectives identified Mullins as a suspect after a two-week investigation. He was found at a southeast Portland home, where he surrendered peacefully to members of the Portland Police Bureau's SERT team and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office SWAT team.

Detectives identified Mullins as a suspect after a two-week investigation. He was found at a southeast Portland home, where he surrendered peacefully to members of the Portland Police Bureau's SERT team and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office SWAT team.

Mullins has a long criminal history. He was convicted in Multnomah County in 2006 of aggravated theft, possession of a stolen vehicle and other charges and sentenced to six months in jail. He was convicted of theft and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Clackamas County in 2005 and of assault in Marion County in 1993.

Homicide suspected in death of woman

Crippen was interviewed and photographed by The Register-Guard in January in a story about efforts to count the number of homeless people in Oregon. She had completed a homelessness registration form at The Dining Room, an alternative soup kitchen in downtown Eugene sponsored by FOOD for Lane County.

“If I can fill out a form that helps tell the story of homelessness, I’m going to do it,” she said then. “Being counted benefits all of us.”

Crippen also said then that she had observed a growing homeless population and a stagnant number of shelters that can’t keep up with the demand.

“I’ve only been indoors a few nights this winter,” she said.

Crippen was well-known in the Eugene homeless community, said Keith Heath, manager at the Service Station, a day center for homeless adults operated by St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County.

Heath, who has managed the Service Station on Highway 99 for seven years, said Crippen was a sporadic visitor during all of that time.

She would come in to shower, do her laundry, grab a bite to eat and watch an occasional movie, he said.

Like many homeless people, she traveled with a buddy, a boyfriend in her case, in order to stay safe, he said.

“Most of the people we see, they generally roll with a buddy. They watch each other’s backs,” Heath said.

Heath last saw Crippen close to Halloween and said it wasn’t unusual for her to be gone for weeks at a time.

He described her as a pleasant woman who was friendly and never caused any trouble.

“It’s a major tragedy. It’s sad. Nobody deserves to get murdered. We’re a family here at the Service Station. She had a lot of friends here,” he said.

Charges filed in woman's slaying

Detectives identified Mullins as a suspect after two weeks of intensive investigation and tips. He was found at the Portland home and surrendered to members of the Portland Police Bureau’s Special Emergency Response Team working with members of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team.

Mullins was booked into jail on murder charges.

Rest in peace, Miss Dana. She sounded like one heck of a human being.