PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A 46-year-old man considered a prime suspect in a 1997 killing in Portland, Ore., has been arrested in a small Outer Banks community in North Carolina.
Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson says Samuel Lee Etheridge was taken into custody Monday by authorities with the Dare County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Etheridge was living in the fishing village of Wanchese on Roanoke Island.
Portland cold case detectives were in North Carolina at time of the arrest and interviewed Etheridge there. He is in a detention center awaiting extradition to Oregon.
Simpson on Tuesday declined to release the name of the victim or other details of the 1997 killing, saying the victim’s family had not been notified.
Cold case detectives began investigating in January 2012 and discovered new information that allowed them to obtain an arrest warrant for Etheridge.
