Searching Oregon court records, on 3/12/1986, she was cited for failure to yield and operating a vehicle without a license, and then on 4/7/1986, her license was sanctioned for a failure to appear in court. This was all dismissed in 1995, and her license was reinstated to an inactive status. To be clear, I think she was not present in 1995; they were just cleaning up the books, but it gives us an idea of her whereabouts and activities the year prior to her death and makes it clear she did not have a valid drivers license at the time she disappeared. It's not clear if she didn't have a license because it had been revoked, or if she never had one or failed to renew it.
There was a warrant issued on 4/1/1987 for a failure to appear for a 3/31/87 court date. This court date was related to a theft in the second degree charge from 11/18/86. Bail was set at $3500. There were other court dates in March that were rescheduled related to the same charge. The charges were dismissed 10/29/1993, and the warrant was recalled.
The charges for theft and forgery were filed on 2/13/87, as stated in an earlier post. A warrant was issued at that time, but the records update in 2016 that "Warrant - Return Not Served". So possibly she was never able to be served with this warrant?
A civil case was also filed against her on 1/13/1989, well after she was presumed/reported missing. The plaintiff in this case seems to be
this man (link is to his obituary). Also named as plaintiffs are two women listed as his wife and daughter in the obituary. There was a
transcript of judgment issued; my understanding is that for a set period of time after an offense, a plaintiff may go after money (but not "real property"), and a transcript may be issued by a court to be filed in another court (perhaps of a different county, etc.) for the plaintiff to pursue obtaining this money there. So my guess is that these people were possibly the victims of Westie Knauer's property crimes. The man involved was politically prominent within Oregon/Portland.
So our timeline:
03/12/86 Cited for failure to yield and driving without a license ("infractions").
04/07/86 License is sanctioned for a failure to appear in court.
11/18/86 Charged with theft in the second degree (misdemeanor).
02/13/87 Charged with theft and forgery (both felony charges). A warrant is issued but possibly never served.
03/31/87 She fails to appear for a court date related to the misdemeanor theft charges. I wonder if she was avoiding being arrested for the outstanding warrant relating to the felony charges, or possibly already involuntarily missing at that time.
04/01/87 A warrant is issued for failing to appear in court on the misdemeanor theft charges.
01/13/89 A civil case is filed against her, with a transcript of judgment issued indicating she is considered to be financially at fault for something.
I know Charley indicates that she was reported missing around June of 1987, having not been seen by at least her mother for roughly two months at that time, but the report in Namus (which Charley lists as its source) could also be read as stating that she was reported missing on 4/1/1987, having not been seen for about two months prior to that. This would put her date last seen as around February of 1987. Nothing in the criminal record would contradict either scenario, as we don't know when the crime took place that she was charged with on 2/13/87. The records can be interpreted as either giving her a motive to voluntarily disappear or that she was living a more and more dangerous life, with increased risk.
