Multnomah County Sheriff's Office releases cold case webpage

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has created a new web page dedicated to unsolved murder cases in Multnomah County.

Detective Sgt. Brad Robertson said that the sheriff’s office is seeking justice for the listed cases, which date back to the early ‘90s. Anyone with information about the listed cases is asked to contact the Multnomah County Sheriffs’ Office tips line.

“The individuals involved in these cases and their loved ones deserve justice,” Robertson said. “We are dedicated to pursuing a resolution to these crimes and hope anyone with information will come forward.”

The announcement comes after the county's cold case unit dissolved roughly five years ago due to staffing. In fact, one detective told KOIN 6 News he hasn't seen a single cold case solved in the seven years he's been with the sheriff's office.

"If law enforcement detectives don't speak for those that have lost their lives, then those cases never come to a resolution for their families,” Robertson said. 

The new webpage aims to bring fresh eyes to these cases as detectives build a database for the roughly 24 cold cases dating back to the ‘70s.

The victims currently listed on the webpage include:

Charly Richards:

• Last seen alive on Aug. 21, 1992
• A hiker found Richards’ body on Aug. 31, 1992, in a wooded area in Troutdale
• Richards was a Clark College student and U.S. Army reservist

Bonifacio Rodriguez-Rodriguez:

• Last seen alive on the evening of Sept. 25, 1994
• His body was found on Sauvie Island with a gunshot wound a week later
• Rodriguez came to Oregon from Mexico to find work

John Warner Nolen:

• Body of an unidentified male found in the Columbia River on April 29, 1992
• Reported missing by family in Washington State in April 1993
• In 2013, dental records were used to identify Nolen

Charly Richards’ siblings spoke with detectives ahead of the website launch. His sister, Tammie Jamison Hitt, said he loved to cook.

“He was just a really beautiful heart, a beautiful soul,” Hitt said. “Who would want to kill a nice guy like Charly Richards?"

The Clark College student and army reservist was last seen leaving his job as a cook at the VA Medical Center on Aug. 21, 1992.

Investigators believe Richard's Ford 4x4 was involved in a minor crash around 9:30 p.m. His truck was found empty off SE 30th Avenue and Salmon Street the next day.

Ten days after Richards was last seen alive, detectives say a hiker found his body here off Thousand Acres Road. That was 32 years ago.

"He's been gone longer than he's been alive,” Richards’ brother Donny Jamison said.

The site won't bring the men back, but detectives hope the new tool — along with advancements in DNA technology — will lead to justice for families long overdue.

"Any piece of information, people might think it's insignificant, but they don't know because they don't have the context of these investigations,” Robertson said. “And that's what we want to draw from the public to help us resolve these cases."