Convicted killer Forrest’s parole hearing delayed

A parole hearing for a convicted killer suspected of slaying several Clark County women in the 1970s has been delayed until December.

Warren L. Forrest, 64 and a former Battle Ground resident, had been scheduled to meet Nov. 4 with two members of the Washington Indeterminate Sentence Review Board as part of the process to consider whether he will be paroled.

Forrest’s hearing has been delayed until Dec. 3-4 because the parole board didn’t receive the required psychological report from the Monroe Correctional Complex, where Forrest is incarcerated, said Robin Riley, assistant to the board chair. A decision on his parole will be made about four to six weeks after Forrest’s meeting with the two board members, Riley said.

The full board of four members met with his victims and their family members Oct. 7 to hear their opinions on his parole. All were opposed to Forrest’s release or a less-restrictive placement.

The board denied him parole in April 2011 because of the brutality of the crimes and because he hadn’t met the standard of rehabilitation.

Investigators have said they believe Forrest is behind the disappearance of at least six young women in Clark County between March 1972 and October 1974.

He was convicted of only the 1974 murder of Krista Kay Blake and received a life sentence in 1979. His conviction allowed for the possibility of parole.

The other five homicides he’s suspected of remain under investigation, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.