June 4, 2026
Prisoner Released Early, Helped Fight Wildfires: Now 5 Women Are Dead
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RSS Feed 41-year-old Jesse Calhoun was in court yesterday, arraigned on a fifth homicide in a string of murders that terrorized the Portland, Oregon community. Family members of some of the young victims, who all ranged in age from 22 to 32, were present as Calhoun pleaded not guilty. Calhoun has a long criminal history of violent crime, but was released early under a prison firefighting program. That’s when Calhoun is alleged to have committed his killing spree, and police say their investigation remains open, saying there could be additional victims.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Thursday, June fourth, and he was already in prison charged with killing four women. Prosecutors this week just added a fifth. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. A serial killer, a que serial killer here, Robes and we'll get into this. But this jumped out in me. He allegedly committed these murders at a time when he was out of prison early because of a specific program. Rose. A lot of folks in California or excuse me, uh out in the West co is going to have some things to answer on this one.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is in Oregon.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: And this, yes, I believe, might leave a lot of explaining on certain prison programs that allow early release.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Of And this dude was a violent criminal.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: This guy, forty one year old Jesse Calhoun, again now charged as a serial killer in the depths of five women in a fairly short period of time. All of these women were found dead in wooded areas around the Portland, Oregon area. But as you pointed out, Babe, he was out of prison committing, according to police, these murders because of an early release program.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: And you know what, Robes that we've heard about this program This is the first time I've heard something that's negatively attached to it. But what we're talking about, and it happens on the West coast in California. We're talking about wildfires and those things can rage and those things and they need help. They call in help from all over the country, sometimes looking for other firefighters to help. And something else they often do robes is use prisoners.
00:01:43
Speaker 3: Yes, so he was among a group of I believe forty prisoners who were released early because he helped fight wildfires back in twenty twenty. Yes, it's a prison firefighting program, and I understand this, but why in God's name would you let somebody out who has a long list of violent criminal convictions from kidnapping to assault to harassment, dating all the way back to two thousand and three when he was just eighteen. This man had been in and out of prison and charged with violent crimes for decades.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: His adult life has been violence his adult life from the time he hit eighteen. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure who knows what was going on beforehand, but there is documented evidence of a violent and troubled person since eighteen and since he was eighteen, and that's the person they let out early. Look, the program is what it is, but it is going to get reviewed after this. So the update here that we have now robes is this week he's already sitting in prison. He's been charged with four murders. They tacked one on to his list.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: This week, that's right.
00:02:46
Speaker 3: And on Wednesday, that was yesterday as of this recording, he was arraigned on that fifth homicide. And not only did some of the victim's families from obviously that fifth homicide show up, but other women's family who police say were victims of his also came to court to see this arraignment.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: He was charged with killing.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: This young woman and dumping her body, much like the others. And so he now is facing five counts of second degree murder and four counts of abusive a corpse. He is pleaded not guilty to all those counts. I still don't understand why at this point it could change. He's only being charged with second degree murder. That wasn't explained a little confusing to me when you start to hear about these victims and what he's accused of doing to them.
00:03:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Roves this was and helped me with it. How what span of time. It was all two thousand and three, twenty three, But do you remember how many months were separated all of these and all the women were between twenty two and thirty two. These were young women. You can imagine how terrifying this was for that area at the time. In Robes, I don't know if we're done here, if this is going to be it's going to stop at five. But it happened in twenty twenty three. And I'm sorry, did you come.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Up with that? Yeah?
00:03:58
Speaker 2: Well, found over multiple months. Okay, it was a long time.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: No, yes, yeah, I mean he had only been released on this early release program and within a year, it seems, from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three. This is when police believe over that period of time he killed at least five women. And you intimated that, Yes, they believe there could be additional victims out there. The bodies were all found within a one hundred mile radius of one another. They were all found in wooded areas. One was found in a culvert, another under a bridge, another in an abandoned barn, another in a fishing pond. But there were all It was a similar mode of operation and so when they started finding these women's bodies again, all young women, they started to think, uh oh, we might have a serial killer on the loose. And it turns out that is exactly what it appears to be.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: And this is this is just an observation. It's it's tough to make any judgment. You don't know who this person is. But I said to you, let me seeing him in court, you think about a serial real killer, you think about someone who has killed young women. Whatever image you might come up within your mind is probably close. This was a I said. He looked like a throwback to some seventies serial killer.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: He really did. I it was funny.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: We hadn't talked about it, but we both were looking up this story and saw his latest image from court yesterday, and you nailed it. He literally looks exactly like what you would think a serial killer from the nineteen.
00:05:29
Speaker 1: Seventies would look like.
00:05:31
Speaker 3: I have had chills on my body the entire time we're talking about this, because it is so eerie and it looks.
00:05:39
Speaker 1: Like something out of the movies.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: But sadly, for these families and for those five young women, it was reality. And I just wanted to list the names in the ages of these women because they are the ones here who police are fighting for justice for. But twenty two year old Ashley Real she is the latest murder charge. We'll get into what her family said and the details we know about her murder because this actually was a strange series of events that led to her murder. Then there was twenty two year old Kristin Smith, twenty four year old Charity Perry, thirty one year old Bridget Webster, and thirty two year old Joanna Speaks. And investigators have notably released very little information on each of these cases.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: On each of these murders, well, these are high profile. This has been going on for years there, and they don't want some other nutcase or somebody looking for notoriety to be calling up and trying to give information. They're trying to keep it close to make sure that anything that comes in, if there's any information that hasn't been released, then they'll know they got the right person or somebody involved. That makes sense. As much as we crave information, but that makes perfectly good sense to me. And I don't know when now roads when we might hear more details, because things get pushed keep getting pushed back and back and back in terms of where his case is, because we're almost starting over again with adding something new to his docket, if you will.
00:07:01
Speaker 3: Correct, and you know to your point about not releasing information. If they do think there may be other victims or other cases that could be tied to this, they certainly, yes, don't want to copycat killer, but they want to make sure that those details are kept private so that they can connect them in a reasonable way without having any other influence perhaps muddy the waters. Like, they want to make sure they keep their investigation close to the vest so that they can make sure they.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: Had the full scope of the investigation.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: So the Ashley real murder details, this just came out in court yesterday, and this is where you and I were so confused. So her father, Jose actually who was there in court yesterday, he called police in November of twenty twenty two. He said that his daughter Ashley came to his home crying. She said she had been choked with marks on her throat by yes, she named him Jesse Calhoun. We don't know how she knew him, if this was a random act of violence, but he took her to the hospital. They made a report. He claims that it got transferred to a different jurisdiction. It was difficult to reach just detectives, and there was no real outcome of.
00:08:16
Speaker 1: That investigation of his daughter being choked.
00:08:19
Speaker 2: Okay, more questions are going to have to be answered. She was choked, she was injured, she was harmed, and she said who did it? And nothing came up and she's dead. Now somebody's gonna.
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Have to answer that exactly.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: So that was in November of twenty twenty two. She goes missing in March of twenty twenty three, so what is that? Four months later she disappears. And then it wasn't until May of twenty twenty three, two months later, that they found Ashley's body in a fishing pond. Much like the others, I have not seen how he has or how they're accusing him of killing these women.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: They haven't.
00:08:52
Speaker 3: I haven't seen a description of how he kills these women.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: We also haven't seen. Look, this is one of the things before we started. Where is their relationship? Why is it the victim and the accused murderer? Why were they in contact at all? Did they know each other? It was just a random no. She named him at the time. How they have not ignowed that swung question. I'd love to have answers.
00:09:16
Speaker 3: And she was the last one to be added to these other four murders, and the family had been waiting and asking for her to be connected because no one had been charged in her murder. Her seems like the most obvious one, right that they if she'd.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: Already named it.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: And then her body is found much like the others, in a similar area in a similar fashion.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't she have been one of the first connected to him and his murder spree?
00:09:43
Speaker 2: According to police, Again, questions have to be answered.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: We are saying five women are dead, and you're telling us that the guy who killed these five women you will let out of prison early. And when he was let out early, he started killing these folks. Now they put him back in jail after the investigation started to maybe point towards him, But at that point it's too late. He was he had already committed these murders allegedly, and then they want to put him back in jail. It's too late, correct. And on top of that, you're also saying you had this dude's name as someone who had threatened one of your dead victims ropes. There's a bunch of questions. This family, Oh my god, this family, it got to be fuman, all of them. Everybody's got to be pissed.
00:10:32
Speaker 3: She was let down if all of this is true by our criminal justice system, no question, And frankly all of these women were because if you actually I wanted to get into the crime. He was in prison for the most recent like I said, of many, I mean, his criminal history was so long and so violent. I actually couldn't believe how many times this man was arrested, charged, convicted, and put in jail. But the latest thing where he was returned to prison because he assaulted a police officer, strangled the police officer's dog.
00:11:08
Speaker 2: That one got me.
00:11:10
Speaker 3: That shows that serial killer type of behavior. Burglary, other charges. And yes, with that most recent violent conviction, that's the one he got released early on to go help fight some fires.
00:11:24
Speaker 1: That is insane.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: And by the way, he was about to be released again early when the governor revoked that commutation, because that's when police started to piece together that yeah, while he was out, he might have been the one responsible for these women's deaths. So she quickly could revokes the commutation to keep him in prison while the investigation continues, and eventually, over twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five, they indicted him on the murders of the other four women, and it wasn't until now that he's finally been indicted on this latest murder. But they say they plan to join all five cases in one try.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: That's good. That would be doing happened to do five try? That would be tough. And this was a reminder on the dog. It was a police dog. Yeah, yes, that's essentially assault on two officers. Yes, I mean, and he would and we're gonna let him out early.
00:12:15
Speaker 3: That's insane to me that that Actually I understand other nonviolent offenses, fine, but I don't even want to think or know. But now we do that this is a system that allows early release for violent criminals to be out there because they helped put out some fires.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: Robes, we hear about these cases, random we hear arguments about policies, and we hear arguments about even prison overcrowding. Sometimes, robes, you don't have to answer this one. If you're telling me we're so crowded that the dude that harassed or excuse me strangled a police dog and assaulted a police officer. We don't have space for him, so we're gonna let him out a little early, Okay.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: I mean I would love to hear previously convicted on kidnapping charges.
00:13:00
Speaker 1: Come on.
00:13:01
Speaker 3: So when we come back, we're going to talk about what the DA has said about this case, and you're going to hear what the families had to say after this hearing. Yeah, they walked out of that hearing and they talked to reporters And welcome back, everybody to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are discussing just an eerie, chilling, and just incredibly tragic situation over in Oregon, where police have now connected the deaths of five young women to one man who had a lengthy violent criminal history, who was let out on an early release program to fight fires there on Oregon, who apparently, according to police, took that time when he was released to murder these five women at the very least. Because yes, the DA said, while the ethical rules limit what I can say about the evidence, I can say the scope of this case is massive, and he said the investigation is still active, and yes, there could be additional.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Victims Robes, this is this story putting on a lot of folks of radar here. I don't think it's been getting a lot of national headlines, at least recently, certainly with this latest charge being added. But Robes, this is a story that needs to be paid attention to because we hear about the justice system when you hear hell Robes, you hear about the coming out of the White House so often that undocumented immigrants are the problem and they're falling through the cracks, and what's wrong with the system? Robes, we are talking about five women dead because of the system that is. We are not overstating that has got to be answered, that's got to be reviewed. I'm not saying ahead needs to roll, but somebody has got to do this better than we just did it. Robes.
00:14:51
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if that was your daughter, Robes before, how you would feel?
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Because again, Robes, some things happen sometimes, wrong place, wrong time, unfortunate accidents happened. Ran into a bad dude. You didn't run into a bad dude. You ran into a dude that was supposed to be behind bars.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: Exactly oof.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: So yes, we heard from some of the families who walked out of that courtroom yesterday and spoke to local reporters. Ashley's father Jose I think you'll really relate to what he had to say. He said, as a believer, I'm just thankful that God didn't allow me to encounter him myself, because he can't imagine what he took from me.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: That was powerful.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: Her sister said, I think being in that courtroom today and being able to see him and know that he is behind bars now, it takes the weight off my shoulders knowing that he isn't around and free to cause any harm to any other women out there. But it doesn't take away the fact that my sister isn't here anymore. And that speaks to that fear and concern that, yeah, you.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: All let him out.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: He perpetrated, according to police, these acts while he was supposed to be in prison, and at least they're saying, thank God he's in prison now. And the mother of one of the other women, Kristin it was Kristin Smith. Her mother spoke and she was there as well and said, we've all experienced the worst thing that could ever happen to you, and it's incredibly hard to see one of the other families hurt the same way we do. They all have this unfortunate bond together. Now they've all experienced, yes, the worst possible thing someone can experience, the loss of a child.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: I remember how she said. She put it that way, and I think are other comments, and you know, they appreciate being able to comfort each other, to be able to commiserate. But I thought it was cool how she put it. It's a damn shame somebody else is feeling the pain I'm feeling. I thought that was just an interesting way to put it. Yes, we're gonna hug and console each other, but I hate that you are dealing with the pain that I'm dealing with. And Roberts, I don't know if any or maybe a couple of these women were married, but it struck me. You talk about dad and a daughter and this rob You think about when a kid gets you think about the future. But Robes, there's so much these women miss, given the ages they are in the twenties and the oldest one is thirty two.
00:17:08
Speaker 1: Thirty two is twenty two to thirty two.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's just awful. And again this is Look, there's death and there's tragedy. There's murder every single day that there is something about this one robes when you hear that there was opportunity after opportunity to not have him out, and he was let out and he was able to fuck up five families.
00:17:28
Speaker 3: Come on, y'all, at least who knows, who knows if there are more to be connected to this man, But we are absolutely going to continue to follow this one. His next court date, I believe is in August, so we will follow this. There's a lot for prosecutors to put together to begin this case now with five murders being tried all together. But guess in August we should see this man back in court and we will be on top of it.
00:17:59
Speaker 1: But we just wanted to with this.
00:18:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, your on your radar because you're right, baby, this hasn't gotten a lot of national headlines and certainly it should what's going on there in Oregon and what happened leading up to the murders of those five young women.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: And with that, we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Thursday, June fourth, and he was already in prison charged with killing four women. Prosecutors this week just added a fifth. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. A serial killer, a que serial killer here, Robes and we'll get into this. But this jumped out in me. He allegedly committed these murders at a time when he was out of prison early because of a specific program. Rose. A lot of folks in California or excuse me, uh out in the West co is going to have some things to answer on this one.
00:00:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is in Oregon.
00:00:39
Speaker 3: And this, yes, I believe, might leave a lot of explaining on certain prison programs that allow early release.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Of And this dude was a violent criminal.
00:00:51
Speaker 3: This guy, forty one year old Jesse Calhoun, again now charged as a serial killer in the depths of five women in a fairly short period of time. All of these women were found dead in wooded areas around the Portland, Oregon area. But as you pointed out, Babe, he was out of prison committing, according to police, these murders because of an early release program.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: And you know what, Robes that we've heard about this program This is the first time I've heard something that's negatively attached to it. But what we're talking about, and it happens on the West coast in California. We're talking about wildfires and those things can rage and those things and they need help. They call in help from all over the country, sometimes looking for other firefighters to help. And something else they often do robes is use prisoners.
00:01:43
Speaker 3: Yes, so he was among a group of I believe forty prisoners who were released early because he helped fight wildfires back in twenty twenty. Yes, it's a prison firefighting program, and I understand this, but why in God's name would you let somebody out who has a long list of violent criminal convictions from kidnapping to assault to harassment, dating all the way back to two thousand and three when he was just eighteen. This man had been in and out of prison and charged with violent crimes for decades.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: His adult life has been violence his adult life from the time he hit eighteen. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure who knows what was going on beforehand, but there is documented evidence of a violent and troubled person since eighteen and since he was eighteen, and that's the person they let out early. Look, the program is what it is, but it is going to get reviewed after this. So the update here that we have now robes is this week he's already sitting in prison. He's been charged with four murders. They tacked one on to his list.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: This week, that's right.
00:02:46
Speaker 3: And on Wednesday, that was yesterday as of this recording, he was arraigned on that fifth homicide. And not only did some of the victim's families from obviously that fifth homicide show up, but other women's family who police say were victims of his also came to court to see this arraignment.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: He was charged with killing.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: This young woman and dumping her body, much like the others. And so he now is facing five counts of second degree murder and four counts of abusive a corpse. He is pleaded not guilty to all those counts. I still don't understand why at this point it could change. He's only being charged with second degree murder. That wasn't explained a little confusing to me when you start to hear about these victims and what he's accused of doing to them.
00:03:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Roves this was and helped me with it. How what span of time. It was all two thousand and three, twenty three, But do you remember how many months were separated all of these and all the women were between twenty two and thirty two. These were young women. You can imagine how terrifying this was for that area at the time. In Robes, I don't know if we're done here, if this is going to be it's going to stop at five. But it happened in twenty twenty three. And I'm sorry, did you come.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Up with that? Yeah?
00:03:58
Speaker 2: Well, found over multiple months. Okay, it was a long time.
00:04:02
Speaker 3: No, yes, yeah, I mean he had only been released on this early release program and within a year, it seems, from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three. This is when police believe over that period of time he killed at least five women. And you intimated that, Yes, they believe there could be additional victims out there. The bodies were all found within a one hundred mile radius of one another. They were all found in wooded areas. One was found in a culvert, another under a bridge, another in an abandoned barn, another in a fishing pond. But there were all It was a similar mode of operation and so when they started finding these women's bodies again, all young women, they started to think, uh oh, we might have a serial killer on the loose. And it turns out that is exactly what it appears to be.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: And this is this is just an observation. It's it's tough to make any judgment. You don't know who this person is. But I said to you, let me seeing him in court, you think about a serial real killer, you think about someone who has killed young women. Whatever image you might come up within your mind is probably close. This was a I said. He looked like a throwback to some seventies serial killer.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: He really did. I it was funny.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: We hadn't talked about it, but we both were looking up this story and saw his latest image from court yesterday, and you nailed it. He literally looks exactly like what you would think a serial killer from the nineteen.
00:05:29
Speaker 1: Seventies would look like.
00:05:31
Speaker 3: I have had chills on my body the entire time we're talking about this, because it is so eerie and it looks.
00:05:39
Speaker 1: Like something out of the movies.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: But sadly, for these families and for those five young women, it was reality. And I just wanted to list the names in the ages of these women because they are the ones here who police are fighting for justice for. But twenty two year old Ashley Real she is the latest murder charge. We'll get into what her family said and the details we know about her murder because this actually was a strange series of events that led to her murder. Then there was twenty two year old Kristin Smith, twenty four year old Charity Perry, thirty one year old Bridget Webster, and thirty two year old Joanna Speaks. And investigators have notably released very little information on each of these cases.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: On each of these murders, well, these are high profile. This has been going on for years there, and they don't want some other nutcase or somebody looking for notoriety to be calling up and trying to give information. They're trying to keep it close to make sure that anything that comes in, if there's any information that hasn't been released, then they'll know they got the right person or somebody involved. That makes sense. As much as we crave information, but that makes perfectly good sense to me. And I don't know when now roads when we might hear more details, because things get pushed keep getting pushed back and back and back in terms of where his case is, because we're almost starting over again with adding something new to his docket, if you will.
00:07:01
Speaker 3: Correct, and you know to your point about not releasing information. If they do think there may be other victims or other cases that could be tied to this, they certainly, yes, don't want to copycat killer, but they want to make sure that those details are kept private so that they can connect them in a reasonable way without having any other influence perhaps muddy the waters. Like, they want to make sure they keep their investigation close to the vest so that they can make sure they.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: Had the full scope of the investigation.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: So the Ashley real murder details, this just came out in court yesterday, and this is where you and I were so confused. So her father, Jose actually who was there in court yesterday, he called police in November of twenty twenty two. He said that his daughter Ashley came to his home crying. She said she had been choked with marks on her throat by yes, she named him Jesse Calhoun. We don't know how she knew him, if this was a random act of violence, but he took her to the hospital. They made a report. He claims that it got transferred to a different jurisdiction. It was difficult to reach just detectives, and there was no real outcome of.
00:08:16
Speaker 1: That investigation of his daughter being choked.
00:08:19
Speaker 2: Okay, more questions are going to have to be answered. She was choked, she was injured, she was harmed, and she said who did it? And nothing came up and she's dead. Now somebody's gonna.
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Have to answer that exactly.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: So that was in November of twenty twenty two. She goes missing in March of twenty twenty three, so what is that? Four months later she disappears. And then it wasn't until May of twenty twenty three, two months later, that they found Ashley's body in a fishing pond. Much like the others, I have not seen how he has or how they're accusing him of killing these women.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: They haven't.
00:08:52
Speaker 3: I haven't seen a description of how he kills these women.
00:08:56
Speaker 2: We also haven't seen. Look, this is one of the things before we started. Where is their relationship? Why is it the victim and the accused murderer? Why were they in contact at all? Did they know each other? It was just a random no. She named him at the time. How they have not ignowed that swung question. I'd love to have answers.
00:09:16
Speaker 3: And she was the last one to be added to these other four murders, and the family had been waiting and asking for her to be connected because no one had been charged in her murder. Her seems like the most obvious one, right that they if she'd.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: Already named it.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: And then her body is found much like the others, in a similar area in a similar fashion.
00:09:38
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't she have been one of the first connected to him and his murder spree?
00:09:43
Speaker 2: According to police, Again, questions have to be answered.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: Robes.
00:09:46
Speaker 2: We are saying five women are dead, and you're telling us that the guy who killed these five women you will let out of prison early. And when he was let out early, he started killing these folks. Now they put him back in jail after the investigation started to maybe point towards him, But at that point it's too late. He was he had already committed these murders allegedly, and then they want to put him back in jail. It's too late, correct. And on top of that, you're also saying you had this dude's name as someone who had threatened one of your dead victims ropes. There's a bunch of questions. This family, Oh my god, this family, it got to be fuman, all of them. Everybody's got to be pissed.
00:10:32
Speaker 3: She was let down if all of this is true by our criminal justice system, no question, And frankly all of these women were because if you actually I wanted to get into the crime. He was in prison for the most recent like I said, of many, I mean, his criminal history was so long and so violent. I actually couldn't believe how many times this man was arrested, charged, convicted, and put in jail. But the latest thing where he was returned to prison because he assaulted a police officer, strangled the police officer's dog.
00:11:08
Speaker 2: That one got me.
00:11:10
Speaker 3: That shows that serial killer type of behavior. Burglary, other charges. And yes, with that most recent violent conviction, that's the one he got released early on to go help fight some fires.
00:11:24
Speaker 1: That is insane.
00:11:24
Speaker 3: And by the way, he was about to be released again early when the governor revoked that commutation, because that's when police started to piece together that yeah, while he was out, he might have been the one responsible for these women's deaths. So she quickly could revokes the commutation to keep him in prison while the investigation continues, and eventually, over twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five, they indicted him on the murders of the other four women, and it wasn't until now that he's finally been indicted on this latest murder. But they say they plan to join all five cases in one try.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: That's good. That would be doing happened to do five try? That would be tough. And this was a reminder on the dog. It was a police dog. Yeah, yes, that's essentially assault on two officers. Yes, I mean, and he would and we're gonna let him out early.
00:12:15
Speaker 3: That's insane to me that that Actually I understand other nonviolent offenses, fine, but I don't even want to think or know. But now we do that this is a system that allows early release for violent criminals to be out there because they helped put out some fires.
00:12:32
Speaker 2: Robes, we hear about these cases, random we hear arguments about policies, and we hear arguments about even prison overcrowding. Sometimes, robes, you don't have to answer this one. If you're telling me we're so crowded that the dude that harassed or excuse me strangled a police dog and assaulted a police officer. We don't have space for him, so we're gonna let him out a little early, Okay.
00:12:55
Speaker 3: I mean I would love to hear previously convicted on kidnapping charges.
00:13:00
Speaker 1: Come on.
00:13:01
Speaker 3: So when we come back, we're going to talk about what the DA has said about this case, and you're going to hear what the families had to say after this hearing. Yeah, they walked out of that hearing and they talked to reporters And welcome back, everybody to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are discussing just an eerie, chilling, and just incredibly tragic situation over in Oregon, where police have now connected the deaths of five young women to one man who had a lengthy violent criminal history, who was let out on an early release program to fight fires there on Oregon, who apparently, according to police, took that time when he was released to murder these five women at the very least. Because yes, the DA said, while the ethical rules limit what I can say about the evidence, I can say the scope of this case is massive, and he said the investigation is still active, and yes, there could be additional.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: Victims Robes, this is this story putting on a lot of folks of radar here. I don't think it's been getting a lot of national headlines, at least recently, certainly with this latest charge being added. But Robes, this is a story that needs to be paid attention to because we hear about the justice system when you hear hell Robes, you hear about the coming out of the White House so often that undocumented immigrants are the problem and they're falling through the cracks, and what's wrong with the system? Robes, we are talking about five women dead because of the system that is. We are not overstating that has got to be answered, that's got to be reviewed. I'm not saying ahead needs to roll, but somebody has got to do this better than we just did it. Robes.
00:14:51
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if that was your daughter, Robes before, how you would feel?
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Because again, Robes, some things happen sometimes, wrong place, wrong time, unfortunate accidents happened. Ran into a bad dude. You didn't run into a bad dude. You ran into a dude that was supposed to be behind bars.
00:15:07
Speaker 1: Exactly oof.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: So yes, we heard from some of the families who walked out of that courtroom yesterday and spoke to local reporters. Ashley's father Jose I think you'll really relate to what he had to say. He said, as a believer, I'm just thankful that God didn't allow me to encounter him myself, because he can't imagine what he took from me.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: That was powerful.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: Her sister said, I think being in that courtroom today and being able to see him and know that he is behind bars now, it takes the weight off my shoulders knowing that he isn't around and free to cause any harm to any other women out there. But it doesn't take away the fact that my sister isn't here anymore. And that speaks to that fear and concern that, yeah, you.
00:15:53
Speaker 1: All let him out.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: He perpetrated, according to police, these acts while he was supposed to be in prison, and at least they're saying, thank God he's in prison now. And the mother of one of the other women, Kristin it was Kristin Smith. Her mother spoke and she was there as well and said, we've all experienced the worst thing that could ever happen to you, and it's incredibly hard to see one of the other families hurt the same way we do. They all have this unfortunate bond together. Now they've all experienced, yes, the worst possible thing someone can experience, the loss of a child.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: I remember how she said. She put it that way, and I think are other comments, and you know, they appreciate being able to comfort each other, to be able to commiserate. But I thought it was cool how she put it. It's a damn shame somebody else is feeling the pain I'm feeling. I thought that was just an interesting way to put it. Yes, we're gonna hug and console each other, but I hate that you are dealing with the pain that I'm dealing with. And Roberts, I don't know if any or maybe a couple of these women were married, but it struck me. You talk about dad and a daughter and this rob You think about when a kid gets you think about the future. But Robes, there's so much these women miss, given the ages they are in the twenties and the oldest one is thirty two.
00:17:08
Speaker 1: Thirty two is twenty two to thirty two.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's just awful. And again this is Look, there's death and there's tragedy. There's murder every single day that there is something about this one robes when you hear that there was opportunity after opportunity to not have him out, and he was let out and he was able to fuck up five families.
00:17:28
Speaker 3: Come on, y'all, at least who knows, who knows if there are more to be connected to this man, But we are absolutely going to continue to follow this one. His next court date, I believe is in August, so we will follow this. There's a lot for prosecutors to put together to begin this case now with five murders being tried all together. But guess in August we should see this man back in court and we will be on top of it.
00:17:59
Speaker 1: But we just wanted to with this.
00:18:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, your on your radar because you're right, baby, this hasn't gotten a lot of national headlines and certainly it should what's going on there in Oregon and what happened leading up to the murders of those five young women.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: And with that, we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.