A suspected serial killer preying on women in Portland has now been charged with a fourth murder as it emerges he was freed from prison early by Oregon‘s former Governor Kate Brown.
Jesse Calhoun, 40, was indicted Tuesday on one count of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree abuse of a corpse in the murder of Kristin Smith, 22, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said.
Smith’s partial remains were found in a field in southeast Portland in February 2023, around two months after she was reported missing in December 2022.
For more than two years, Calhoun was named a person of interest in her murder but authorities did not have enough evidence to bring charges until now.
Following his indictment, Smith’s mother, Melissa Smith, said she was ecstatic Calhoun had finally been charged with her daughter’s murder.
‘It has been a long and agonizing 898 days since the day I found out Kristin Smith was deceased,’ she told reporters at a press conference.
Calhoun was indicted on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of second-degree abuse of a corpse in the deaths of three other victims in May 2024.
Joanna Speaks, 32, Charity Lynn Perry, 24, and Bridget Leanne Webster, 31, were all found dead under suspicious circumstances across the Portland metro area in April 2023.
Suspected serial killer Jesse Calhoun, 40, has now been charged with the murder of a fourth victim
Kristin Smith’s partial remains were found in a field in southeast Portland in February 2023
Speaks’s body was found first on April 8 in Ridgefield, Washington.
Days later, on April 24, Perry’s body was discovered in east Multnomah County before Webster’s body was found on April 30 in Polk County.
Police announced there was a person of interest on the radar back in July 2023 but another 10 months passed before Calhoun was hit with charges.
He is also a person of interest in the murder of a fifth woman, 22-year-old Ashley Real, whose body was discovered in May 7, 2023, in Clackamas County. No charges have yet been brought against him in that case.
Smith’s mom said she was devastated last year when her daughter was not among the victims Calhoun was charged with.
‘I cannot explain the agonizing pain I felt that day that Kristin was not one of those girls,’ Melissa said.
‘I stood strong with other families and was happy they got their answers, and I prayed every day this day would come for me, for us.’
Joanna Speaks, 32, (left) was found in an abandoned barn in southwestern Washington on April 8. On April 24, 2023, the remains of Charity Perry, 24 (right), were discovered
The body of Bridget Webster, 31 (left), was found on April 30, 2023, and Ashley Real, 22 (right), on May 7, 2023
In June, she said it was ‘gut-wrenching’ to come face-to-face with her daughter’s suspected killer in court.
‘It’s hard to look him in the face, and there’s a lot I would like to say,’ she said at the time.
‘We already feel broken. We already feel empty.’
Calhoun has an extensive criminal record – including burglary, drug possession and identify theft, according to public records.
In 2019, Calhoun began serving a four-year sentence for burglary and theft.
But, after serving as a prison firefighter during the 2020 wildfire season, he was granted clemency in 2021 by then-Governor Brown.
He was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution on July 22, 2021, almost one year before his projected release date.
Smith’s mom, Melissa Smith (in pink), told reporters outside the Multnomah County Courthouse in Portland she has waited years for Calhoun to be charged with her murder
After serving as a prison firefighter during the 2020 wildfire season, he was granted clemency in 2021 by then-Governor Kate Brown (pictured)
During his newfound freedom, he is accused of killing multiple women.
By the time he was hit with the first indictment for murder in May 2024, Calhoun had already returned to prison for a separate unknown crime.
The Daily Mail has contacted Brown for comment.
Calhoun is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges on August 11.
A trial is set to begin in early 2027.
