Detectives with the Clark County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit are asking for information about Martha Marie Morrison, a 17-year-old who disappeared in Portland in September 1974. Investigators believe she may be the unidentified female whose remains were found near Dole Valley area in October 1974.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit is looking for information about a girl who disappeared in Portland in 1974 as a teenager and who may be the victim of an unsolved homicide in Clark County the same year.
Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of when the skeletal remains of two people were found in the Dole Valley area of northeast Clark County in 1974.
One of the bodies was identified as Carol Louise Valenzuela, 18, who had been missing for about two months before her body was found. Valenzuela’s homicide remains unsolved.
The other body, also a female, has not been identified. Her teeth were in poor condition, but investigators have been able to determine that she was a white female between 17 and 23 years old who was about 5 feet 2 inches tall and had long, wavy brown hair.
Law enforcement officials say the body could be that of Martha Marie Morrison, a 17-year-old girl who was last seen in Portland in September 1974. They are asking the public for any information about Morrison.
According to Reba Morrison, Martha Morrison’s sister, a family member said he reported the teen as missing in 1974. A few years ago, though, the family discovered her disappearance actually had never been reported to police.
A few months later, law enforcement swabbed Reba Morrison and her brother for DNA comparisons, but investigators have not told them anything conclusive, Reba Morrison said.
Law enforcement recently released more information about Martha Morrison to help generate leads in the case.
Martha Morrison was described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, 140 pounds, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. When she disappeared, she had recently traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., and the Eugene, Ore. area.
At an early age, she was placed in foster care with Reba Morrison and was reputed to be an occasional runaway. Her mother was deaf and Martha Morrison was skilled at sign language. She is described as an accomplished guitarist and singer who did tarot card readings. She had severe psoriasis, a skin condition that causes redness and irritation, on her body, except for her face.
In Eugene, Martha Morrison attended Jefferson Junior High School and Roosevelt High School, but she also briefly attended the Corvallis Farm School. She has been described as a free spirit who engaged in recreational use of marijuana and amphetamines.
In 1973 or 1974, Martha Morrison lived in Phoenix, Ariz., where she attended Job Corps training. While in the Job Corps, she may have met a fellow student with whom she later traveled to Portland in mid-1974. That man is described as a thinly built, light-skinned African American who was taller than Morrison.
The two lived together in Portland, where he worked as a welder in the shipyards. Morrison was reportedly last seen in September, when she left their apartment following an argument. She has not been seen or heard from since then.
Reba Morrison, 61, of Creswell, Ore., was in her 20s when her sister disappeared.
All she knows of her younger sister’s disappearance is that Martha Morrison and her boyfriend “had a tiff and the landlady said she’d seen Martha leave with a suitcase.”
Reba Morrison said that her sister has never called her mother since her disappearance, a sign that makes her believe her sister is dead.
“I’ve had a gut feeling from early on that something foul, amiss had happened with her,” she said.
Reba Morrison is currently undergoing treatment for cancer and said she’d like to know what happened before it’s too late.
“I would like to know for sure, so we can get some absolute closure in this,” she said. “I’d like to know before I’m gone.”
Anyone with information about Martha Morrison, the man she lived with or anyone else the couple knew is asked to call the cold case unit’s tip line, 360-397-2036. Information also can be emailed to coldcase@clark.wa.gov or mailed to P.O. Box 410 Vancouver, WA 98666.
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