PORTLAND — Skeletal remains discovered by hunters are those of a man who vanished five years ago after kidnapping two women at the end of a Snoop Dogg concert in downtown Portland, the authorities said Thursday.
The hunters found the bones last December in woods near Turner, about 50 miles south of Portland. Tentatively believed to be fugitive Paul Evans Winklebleck, the remains were sent to Texas for identification. The Oregon State Police crime lab got DNA confirmation this week that the bones were indeed those of Winklebleck, said Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau.
The cause of death was hypothermia and drowning, police said.
Winklebleck, who would have turned 48 this year, was sought on felony warrants for kidnapping, criminal impersonation, assault, attempted rape and robbery. He was separately wanted for child sex abuse and failing to register as a child sex offender.
He was sentenced to eight years in state prison in 1999 after pleading guilty to sodomy in a case involving a girl.
Shortly before midnight on March 4, 2010, Winklebleck approached two women outside Portland’s Roseland Theater, where they had just left Snoop Dogg’s concert.
Winklebleck, dressed in camouflage, lied and said he was working with police to spot potentially drunk drivers, Simpson said. He told the women he didn’t want them to get pulled over, and offered them a ride home in their car. Once inside, he displayed a knife, sped south on Interstate 5 and stopped on a gravel road near Detroit Lake.
One woman broke free and ran to a home, where a resident called 911.
Winklebleck abandoned the second woman and fled in their car, which was later found in a field about 10 miles away. His remains were found in roughly the same area as the vehicle.
The search for Winklebleck was featured three years ago on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.”
