Found Deceased OR - Owen Klinger, 18, University of Portland, 6 Oct 2019

New Posts

88GlavineRC said:
^Why lend credibility to some greedy podcast creator or true crime author narrative like Smiley/Missing411 when there are real muggings and he was less than a mile from a bridge known for jumpers.


N. Portland neighbors: Teens attacking, assaulting us
Click to expand...

Like I said, just a theory. The Portland Police came out saying that they thought he may have hopped a train with almost no proof whatsoever, so I don’t see how this is much different. It’s important to look at all angles.
 
scox_ said:
Like I said, just a theory. The Portland Police came out saying that they thought he may have hopped a train with almost no proof whatsoever, so I don’t see how this is much different. It’s important to look at all angles.
Click to expand...
I just read about this! It is interesting to me since the Detectives who did the documentary say it’s a serial gang who has killed in 11 states! The victims do match up - young, clean cut white athletic college students from solid homes. It does cause my mind to ponder
 
IMHO the Smiley Face "theory" is a desperate attempt to string together a series of tragedies of young white male college students, many of whom had been drinking.

Someone posted upthread the idea that Owen either was sure he was coming back in a couple of hours, or he had decided he was never coming back. I'm convinced he's the one who turned his phone off, so I'm going with option 2. ($150 doesn't seem like enough to start out on your own for an indefinite amount of time, but he apparently had more money in his room - how much has never been made public).

There's always so much more to these cases than we ever know. I hope he is okay and contacts someone soon.
 
Occam's Zebra said:
IMHO the Smiley Face "theory" is a desperate attempt to string together a series of tragedies of young white male college students, many of whom had been drinking.

Someone posted upthread the idea that Owen either was sure he was coming back in a couple of hours, or he had decided he was never coming back. I'm convinced he's the one who turned his phone off, so I'm going with option 2. ($150 doesn't seem like enough to start out on your own for an indefinite amount of time, but he apparently had more money in his room - how much has never been made public).

There's always so much more to these cases than we ever know. I hope he is okay and contacts someone soon.
Click to expand...
Yes, the Smiley Face Killers Theory has been debunked by LE.
 
Bree1950 said:
I just read about this! It is interesting to me since the Detectives who did the documentary say it’s a serial gang who has killed in 11 states! The victims do match up - young, clean cut white athletic college students from solid homes. It does cause my mind to ponder
Click to expand...
Except these cases are concentrated on the east coast, the furthest west is Wisconsin. And this is far-fetched as heck.
 
Last edited:
LAborn said:
Except these cases are concentrated on the east coast, the furthest west is Wisconsin. And this is far-fetched as heck.
Click to expand...


It is, but the theory is that it’s a group connected on the dark web, so just because there hasn’t been connections on the west coast before doesn’t mean it’s out of the question. And totally understand the skepticism because I thought this was the stupidest theory for a long time, I still don’t think the smiley faces are relevant at all, but I do think there’s something more there. I mean, if there wasn’t, why arent there more college age women or people of color being found under the same circumstances? Just seems odd. Also, not all of the cases involved drinking so I don’t think it’s fair to say these were just drunk accidents.

I think the $150 Owen took out was for some kind of service of someone he met online and that something went awry. And I think the answers are all out there on the internet somewhere.

And for the record, I hope I’m super wrong. All JMO.
 
Occam's Zebra said:
IMHO the Smiley Face "theory" is a desperate attempt to string together a series of tragedies of young white male college students, many of whom had been drinking.

Someone posted upthread the idea that Owen either was sure he was coming back in a couple of hours, or he had decided he was never coming back. I'm convinced he's the one who turned his phone off, so I'm going with option 2. ($150 doesn't seem like enough to start out on your own for an indefinite amount of time, but he apparently had more money in his room - how much has never been made public).

There's always so much more to these cases than we ever know. I hope he is okay and contacts someone soon.
Click to expand...

I agree completely with this post.

My main man William of Occam says the following:
  • OK turned his phone off himself.
  • OK decided to absent himself, i.e., he went voluntarily missing.
His parents still appear to be in deep denial. Understandably.
Their unwillingness to even entertain the possibility of his being voluntarily missing is... unfortunate, to say the least.
They're entrenched in their belief that they know their son, and that he would not leave without telling them.

Facts aren't Feelings.
His mom and dad's feelings are clouding their view of the facts.

With regard to the amount he withdrew, and the fact that he had access to more cash than he took with him that night:

To me, this further bolsters the train-hopping theory.

Train-hopping can be dangerous, for a variety of reasons.
Source: Freighthopping - Wikipedia
Freight-train riding has a reputation of being very dangerous and, to some degree, is in fact so. According to author and journalist Ted Conover, a large percentage of modern-day hobos are ex-convicts and violence is not uncommon among the transient population.

OK may have figured that he'd be safer having less cash on his person rather than a big bundle that would make him a more likely robbery/mugging target on the rails.

The other possibility is IF in fact that were his parents' versus money he earned himself, he may not in good conscience have been able to take it all with him, considering he knew he wasn't going to be using it for its intended purposes, i.e., for college-related expenses.

JMO.
 
Last edited:
rustbeltrose said:
Buddy system always when possible, avoid Lombard at dark unless in a group. No parks at night. I always carried pepper spray bc I am a runner/biker and would often be alone. Program PSafe number into “favorites” on phone. Keep tabs on the local news for St Johns, it can be easy to get trapped in the UP bubble and have no idea what’s going on outside of it. If your son is in a dorm they occasionally have self-defense workshops and they are VERY good. I never felt unsafe there but it IS an urban area so you have to be diligent. Avoid biking across the St Johns bridge - notoriously risky bc of cars. Campus is extremely safe!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the great advice! Is Psafe UP Security? I had heard about it. My son has a brown belt in karate but against weapons.... But glad to hear campus is safe
 
nao said:
Owen is 18 not 8. He is a young man a person not a possession. His parents care and love him i have no doubt. Let me count the reasons he cannot be honest about what and where he goes. The parents know how much $ he has and took from his personal bank account. His room mate contact parents... Were they instructed to keep watch on him and give parents info of his everyday life. Maybe he just needs some breathing room to be himself.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is fair. It is up to the 18 year old if he wants his parents on his account or not. We set up a checking account with ATM card for our son when he was 14, tied to our accounts. We were told that when he's 18 he can take full possession of it (along with paying the monthly fee for not having a lot in there) or keep it with us. I would not consider it an invasion of privacy at all if he were to turn up missing to see when he last accessed it. And it's easy to see what's in there if there's an allowance you transfer into it on a regular basis.

You can't expect to be treated like a full, independent adult if your parents are paying for your housing, schooling, bank account, and perhaps spending money. I personally still lived at home during my college years and had to respect the rules at home my parents had. Living in a dorm is sort of similar. You're not "on your own" yet.
 
To me, taking cash out and leaving cash in one's room speaks of a person who has some kind of budget, and some specific expenditure in mind. One leaves the weekly budgeted expense money in the room, and then makes a decision about how much to spend on the date/meet-up/activity that they are going to do that day or evening. Or they are going to purchase something that's an "extra" over their weekly budget.

Not taking a warmer jacket indicates that no longterm exposure to wind and cold (as in train-hopping) was expected. Not taking a larger backpack with change of underwear/layers indicates the same.

He did not expect to be gone long. And unless he was deliberately misleading his parents (by withdrawing money) he did not plan to jump off a bridge, either.

Cat fished? Other mishap with a stranger? Used What's App to arrange everything? Or simply used one of the computers in the school library? I wonder if their library has cameras (most colleges do, as otherwise misuse of computers by random people and sometimes by students is rampant). I wonder if UP has thought to review its own camera footage, to see if Owen was in the library (and then look at the history on that computer).

If he intended to go on a short "train-hopping" jaunt, he chose the night before midterms (AFAIK) and did not dress appropriately for that experience, marking himself as a total n00b and therefore in danger from opportunistic, seasoned "travelers." If he did in fact leave Portland on the night before midterms, he ran away from his school life and if he's still alive, he is maintaining his resolve not to contact his family. Hopefully, he had the sense to head south and not north, as it's getting colder.
 
I think due to clothing he wore and money taken with him that he definitely
had prearranged plans when he walked away from campus. I feel he was either going to make a purchase from someone or a group text makes me think possibly he was walking up to a house to attend a party. I feel something went terribly wrong either during the meet up, during the walk on the street or possibly someone he knew gave him a ride? I feel something very unexpected happened that he wasn’t expecting. I feel the group texting is key to solving what happened because someone in the group texting added him to the group and they haven’t come forward!
 
Bree1950 said:
I think due to clothing he wore and money taken with him that he definitely
had prearranged plans when he walked away from campus. I feel he was either going to make a purchase from someone or a group text makes me think possibly he was walking up to a house to attend a party. I feel something went terribly wrong either during the meet up, during the walk on the street or possibly someone he knew gave him a ride? I feel something very unexpected happened that he wasn’t expecting. I feel the group texting is key to solving what happened because someone in the group texting added him to the group and they haven’t come forward!
Click to expand...

I totally agree. A party, or a solo meet-up. His phone number became known (through group text) to new people. I believe apps like What's App allow people to then contact each other and either accept or decline more private communication. Do we know any more about who this group was? All apparent UP students or not?
 
daydreamingbraindoc said:
Owen’s Poem for one of his class assignments has been published.
Click to expand...
Interesting!

Poetry is so subjective, and interpretations can vary.

Having said that, I read a lot of ambivalence about the family unit in OK's poem.

The phrases that jumped out at me were "From extra credit is mandatory" and "times spent together are captured...sitting on the shelves."

Yep. I'm seeing a lot of ambivalence expressed there.

The language he uses reflects feeling stuck, i.e., "mandatory, captured, sitting on the shelves," etc.

But again, that's just me, and poetry, like all art, is subjective.

JMO.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 71 more.
Total: 4,133 (members: 72, guests: 4,061)

Online statistics

Members online
72
Guests online
4,062
Total visitors
4,134
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,399
Messages
17,968,394
Members
228,767
Latest member
Mona Lisa
Back
Top