Cold-case team seeks to link trace evidence to suspected victim of serial killer Warren Forrest

A reestablished team of Clark County cold-case investigators is hoping to link trace evidence to one of serial killer Warren Forrest’s suspected victims from 50 years ago.

In October 1974, a hunting party found Carol Valenzuela, 18, and Martha Morrison’s skeletal remains in shallow graves about 100 feet apart in a densely wooded area of Dole Valley in eastern Clark County. Morrison’s remains weren’t identified until July 2015, however.

A Clark County Superior Court jury convicted Forrest of Morrison’s cold-case murder in February 2023 — after a breakthrough in the case thanks to DNA evidence. Blood found on an air pistol Forrest used to torture a Camas woman in October 1974 was identified as Morrison’s.

Now, investigators want Forrest prosecuted for Valenzuela’s slaying.

Earlier this year, Clark County Sheriff John Horch reestablished a mostly volunteer cold-case team that had been suspended in 2020. The team includes retired homicide detectives, including Doug Maas, who joined in June.

Maas was one of the first deputies who responded after a Camas woman escaped an attack by Forrest at Lacamas Lake in 1974. Maas later served as a detective on the Forrest cases in 1976, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We want the community to know we haven’t given up on this, and we mainly want Forrest to know we haven’t given up on this — and won’t,” Maas said during a Monday interview from the Major Crimes Unit office in downtown Vancouver. “As long as I stay vertical, I’m going to stay on this one.”

With Maas taking the lead, a trio of cold-case investigators are working on Forrest’s cases. A couple other cold-case investigators are actively working on another seven unsolved cases, said sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman Jr., who oversees the unit. (Another 23 unsolved cases are pending, he said.)

Forrest, 75, of Battle Ground is suspected in the disappearances and deaths of seven women and girls in Clark County between 1971 and 1974: Jamie Grissim, 16, in December 1971; Barbara Ann Derry, 18, in February 1972; Diane Gilchrist, 14, in May 1974; Gloria Nadine Knutson, 19, in May 1974; Krista Kay Blake, 20, in July 1974; Valenzuela in August 1974; and Morrison in August or September 1974. Two others — Norma Jean Countryman, 15, who was abducted in July 1974, and the 20-year-old Camas woman — survived.

Forrest, an Army veteran and former Clark County parks employee, is serving two life sentences for Morrison and Blake’s slayings. Blake was last seen July 11, 1974, climbing into Forrest’s light blue van near downtown Vancouver. Her remains were found exactly two years later in a shallow grave on Clark County parks property at Tukes Mountain.

Cold-case investigators are now working to analyze trace evidence, including hair and nail samples, recovered from Forrest’s van in the 1970s.

Some of the trace evidence was examined by the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab more than a decade ago. But at that time, the lab didn’t have the capability to build a DNA profile. Advances in DNA technology now make that possible. Private labs, in particular, are able to work off as little as a hair shaft, Maas and Neiman said.

The sheriff’s office is consulting with Texas-based Othram, a private laboratory, to explore options for testing. The agency has previously worked with the laboratory, Neiman said.

The sheriff’s office does not yet have a timeline for when the evidence will be tested. It is still determining what should be sent to Othram and how that will be funded, and what can be tested by the State Patrol, Neiman said. DNA testing can take six months to a year to complete, although private labs are typically faster, he said.

In the meantime, the sheriff’s office is seeking the public’s help in gathering information related to Forrest’s suspected victims.

A sheriff’s office team contacted Forrest in prison earlier this year, Neiman said, and plans to reach out again.

“We’ve given him opportunities to bring closure to the families,” Neiman said.

At his sentencing in Morrison’s case, Forrest declined to address the court, despite Morrison’s brother and prosecutors urging him to provide answers.

“He probably hopes he never sees us, but we’re never going to give up,” Maas said.

Starr Lara has been seeking answers about her sister, Jamie Grissim, for decades.

Grissim’s wallet was discovered in May 1972 beside a road in Dole Valley, about a mile from where Morrison and Valenzuela’s remains were later found. Grissim’s remains have never been located, although a K-9 trained in cadaver detection searched as recently as July, Maas said.

“Forrest is an enigma. (Serial killer Ted) Bundy came clean in the end. … Forrest is as cold as they come,” Maas said. “He’s 75 now. Time is of the essence.”