A state parole board has decided that a convicted killer suspected of slaying several Clark County women in the 1970s will remain locked up.
In a written decision, the Washington Indeterminate Sentence Review Board denied granting Warren L. Forrest, now 61, parole. He will remain confined at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.
Forrest, an Army veteran and former Clark County parks employee, was the suspect behind the disappearances of six young women in Clark County between March 1972 and October 1974. He was convicted of one of the homicides and received a life sentence in 1979.
His conviction, however, left open the possibility of parole. In the decision released Friday, the board said Forrest did not meet the high standard of showing that he has been rehabilitated.
The board took into consideration the opinion of a psychologist who reported that he exhibited low to moderate signs of relapsing into violence and general criminal activity.
The board said it also considered the brutality of the crimes in the 1970s, as well as the victim’s families’ wishes for Forrest to continue to be confined.
Officials noted an interview in which Forrest said he had “zero impulse control” when the crimes were committed and admitted to being “obsessed with thoughts of sex and torture during that time,” according to the written decision.
“He said he had obsessive preoccupation with things and thoughts and that he heard voices,” the board said in the decision.
Prior to his 1979 conviction for the murder of Krista Kay Blake, Forrest pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the kidnapping and rape of a surviving victim and spent 3½ years at Western State Hospital near Tacoma.
The parole board recommended that Forrest continue to undergo sex offender treatment in prison to “fully understand his offending cycle, high risks and interventions.” Officials also recommended counseling.
Forrest is eligible for parole again in 2014.
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
