PORTLAND — The breakthrough in the 9-year-old mystery surrounding the killing of a prominent federal public defender came after the suspect talked about the crime and someone tipped off investigators.
Prosecutors and police haven’t disclosed what led to the arrest of 28-year-old Christopher Alexander Williamson in the Nov. 24, 2009, strangulation of Assistant Federal Public Defender Nancy Bergeson.
But others close to the investigation said it was a combination of tenacity by detectives, the suspect’s loose lips years after the crime and some luck.
Court records show Williamson lived at two addresses near Bergeson in Southwest Portland at the time, including one about two miles away. People who knew his family said he had a difficult upbringing with a father convicted of sex crimes and a chaotic home life.
Homicide detective Michele Michaels has worked the case as lead investigator since shortly after Bergeson, 57, was found dead in her home.
Her colleagues, homicide Detectives Mike Slater and Erik Kammerer, arrested Williamson at 4:34 p.m. Friday at a dialysis center on Southwest Mohawk Street in Tualatin where he received treatment, according to jail and court records. He was booked into Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail that night.
Williamson would have been 19 at the time of the killing.
Immediate neighbors of Bergeson’s said they didn’t recognize the photo of Williamson, now 28. Bergeson was known to keep her door open to allow her golden retriever Bodhi to come in and out. Some neighborhood kids would take the dog for walks, friends and neighbors said.
There was no sign of forced entry at Bergeson’s house and it wasn’t ransacked. The front door was unlocked at the time.
The case baffled police and the public from the beginning. Bergeson lived alone and was found lying face down in the dining room of her Bridlemile home after a girl who had stopped by to walk Bergeson’s dog saw her body through a front window and alerted a neighbor. The deputy medical examiner who responded thought it was a natural death, so Bergeson’s body was removed from the house, but an autopsy the next morning showed she had been strangled.
Investigators have said they don’t believe the killing was random. They also don’t believe it was connected to Bergeson’s work as a defense lawyer. But they haven’t revealed a possible motive for the attack.
Sources familiar with the investigation told The Oregonian/OregonLive that an associate of Williamson’s tipped them off. They wouldn’t say more about the associate’s connection to Williamson.
They also pointed to work by detectives to keep on the case even after all the time that had passed with little to go on. Investigators within weeks had delved into Bergeson’s clients and the federal cases she handled. They asked for DNA swabs and fingerprints from her colleagues at the Federal Public Defender’s Office and everyone in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland.
They flooded Bergeson’s neighborhood with questionnaires, asking if anyone had spotted someone unusual or suspicious in the area. They sought further testing of an unknown person’s DNA profile found at the crime scene. They pulled in different detectives to offer “fresh eyes’’ on the case from time to time.
“I’m just super excited they got to where they are. They never let it go,’’ said George Burke, who was a Central Precinct lieutenant who responded to Bergeson’s house in 2009, later led the Portland police detective division , retired from the bureau and now is a deputy chief for Salem Police Department.
Court records so far have revealed no connection between Bergeson and Williamson. Williamson didn’t have any criminal cases in Oregon’s federal court.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance in Multnomah County Circuit Court Tuesday. He was booked on a single allegation of murder, but additional charges are likely to follow.
He has a history of minor crimes. He was arrested in 2015 on a domestic violence-related allegation, accused of punching his father, but the fourth-degree assault charge was thrown out after he completed a diversion program, court records show. He has 2011 convictions for third-degree assault and minor in possession of alcohol and a TriMet fare evasion citation from last year.
He attended Wilson High School up until 10th grade in Southwest Portland, and lived at two addresses in the area as a child and teeanger — the 5000 block of Southwest Miles St., about two miles southwest of Bergeson’s house, and the 5200 block of Southwest Custer Street. Bergeson lived at 4146 Southwest Hamilton St.
He lived off and on with his father, James Charles Williamson, a registered sex offender convicted in Multnomah County of attempted sexual abuse in 2003 and second-degree sexual abuse in 2016.
Robert Archer and Linda Denning, who lived next door to the Williamsons on Miles Street and later bought their home, remembered the family well. Archer said Christopher Williamson had a severe hearing problem that stemmed from an untreated illness. Christopher and his older brother would often come into the couple’s garden when there was yelling at their home.
“They were looking for some kind of normalcy in their lives,’’ said Linda Denning recalled.
The father, James Williamson, had gone to prison for sexually abusing a young girl known by the family, and then the parents split up, Archer said.
“To call the family dysfunctional is a huge understatement,’’ Archer said.
Christopher Williamson would play with his sons, Archer said. “I always hoped things had gotten better for him but sounds like not,’’ he said.
As a young boy, Christopher Williamson was articulate and seemed sweet, Denning said. “I just feel like Chris didn’t have a chance,’’ she said.
Christopher Williamson most recently has been living on disability benefits. He told court officials in 2015 that he suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, used marijuana regularly and was undergoing dialysis.
Bergeson’s friends described her as energetic, compassionate and generous with an independent spirit and deep commitment to work. She was known for her advocacy for her clients and for her strong connections with young people.
She was active as a dragon boat paddler, and her friends, work colleagues and fellow paddlers held frequent memorials for her, hoping to keep her case in the public spotlight.
She developed a passion for the underdog, whether it was criminal defendants, needy children or shelter dogs, friends and family said after her death.
Priscilla Seaborg, a close friend who was one of the founders of the Nancy Bergeson Ardent Advocate Lecture Series to honor Bergeson’s memory, said she learned of the arrest Saturday morning in a text message from another lawyer.
“I was just so happy yesterday, and today I feel it’s more bittersweet,” Seaborg said Sunday. “I really hope it provides some answers.”
The sad irony is that Williamson was the kind of kid that Bergeson would have helped, Seaborg said.
“This is who she devoted her life to – guys like him,” Seaborg said.
Other friends took to Facebook to share the development in the case.
Suzi Cloutier wrote, “Oh my god…wow. Finally some answers for Nancy.’’
Another friend responded, “Nancy would want us to treat him as a suspect at this point!’’
Cloutier replied, “yes of course!’’
Bergeson’s family members, including her daughter, Jamie, now 32, said they hope for “answers and justice” with the arrest.
But they said they’re sorry Bergeson’s mother, Marian Bergeson, didn’t live to see this day. Her mother, a former California state senator, state assemblywoman and California secretary of education, died in 2016.
