Though the killing of Donald Brown has gone nearly nine years without the responsible person arrested, the new head detective on the case said police are still chasing leads.
“I believe it’s a solvable case,” Vancouver Police Detective Darren McShea said. “The case is certainly not stale.”
Brown’s live-in-girlfriend came back to their Orchards-area home on the night of Feb. 4, 2007, to find Brown deceased. Investigators said he had been fatally stabbed in his head and neck and that the house, on Northeast 104th Court, had no signs of forced entry.
Though the Clark County Sheriff’s Office originally investigated the crime, McShea took over the case early last year to give the investigation some fresh eyes. He said that this case is one of four cold cases he is investigating.
“My experience is that (cold cases) are difficult because of the process itself — first having to educate yourself on the case facts, seeing what investigation has been done,” he said. “Sometimes you’re just duplicating efforts because you need to get that information firsthand. It all takes more time.”
McShea said for the first three months, he familiarized himself with the case by going through nine 3-inch binders of reports. After that, he started doing some follow-up himself, which included contacting people associated with the case and re-examining evidence. He’s getting assistance from other agencies in the regional major crimes team.
“I’m pleased with how it’s been moving forward. … We’ve got some good momentum going,” McShea said. “The hindrance there is time. While you’re investigating a case that happened nine years ago, you have those newer cases coming in that you have to address right away … but I knew going in that this was going to be a case that we’ve got to push through.”
Investigators have partnered with Crime Stoppers of Oregon, which is offering an increased reward of up to $2,500 for information that helps lead to an arrest.
Detectives say that even information learned through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube could help them identify the suspect or suspects.
Tips can be sent via text message to 274637; begin the message with “823HELP.” Tips also can be left anonymously at http://crimestoppersoforegon.com/submit_online_tip.php or by calling 503-823-HELP (4357).
“We absolutely need and would like more and new information if it’s out there,” McShea said. “Obviously somebody knows who did this. People don’t typically keep information like this to themselves … somebody knows.”
