Martha Marie Morrison (1957 - c. September 1, 1974) was a teenager found murdered in 1974 after her disappearance in September of the same year.
She was identified in 2015.
Background[]
Martha grew up in foster care while living in Lane County, Oregon. Her sister recalls that their mother was deaf. She attended Roosevelt High School and the Corvallis Farm School. She went to Arizona to participate in the Job Corps program.
She had a history of drug use and ran away from the homes of her biological and foster families, including the Corvallis Farm School.
She was last seen on September 1, 1974, leaving an apartment she rented with a man. She reportedly went missing following an argument.
Case[]
On October 12, 1974, two sets of remains were discovered. The first victim was identified as 18-year-old Carol Platt Valenzuela, but Martha remained unidentified at the time.
Martha was estimated to be around 20 to 25 years old, with curly hair and poor dental hygiene. An examination indicated she had been deceased for at least two weeks, but decomposition and animal activity made estimating her cause of death and postmortem interval difficult. Martha was ruled out as a possible identity of "Orange Socks", who was later identified as Debra Jackson.
Identification[]
DNA was obtained from Martha's sister and half-brother, which was used to develop a genetic profile. However, a definitive match would not be made until July 2015, when the remains of Martha's deceased father were exhumed and compared.
Police appealed for information regarding Martha's boyfriend on the anniversary of her death in 2016, believing he might have valuable information about the case.
In 2017, bloodstain evidence matched Morrison's DNA to an air gun owned by a long-term person of interest in her case, suspected serial rapist and killer Warren Leslie Forrest.
In January 2020, Forrest was charged with her murder and found guilty in February 2023.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Martha Morrison on Wikipedia
- The Columbian
- KATU