The Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s cold case investigators are asking for the public’s help tracking down a man who was dating a 17-year-old Portland girl whose body was found in rural Clark County more than 40 years ago.
Detectives think the man, who is not a suspect, could have information that will help them determine what happened during the last days and hours of Martha Marie Morrison’s life.
Morrison’s skeletal remains were discovered in a shallow grave in the Dole Valley area in east Clark County in 1974, about two months after she disappeared. Her sister and half-brother thought her father had reported her missing at the time, but he hadn’t, according to the sheriff’s office.
She wasn’t listed as missing until 2010, when her half-brother called Eugene, Ore., police looking for an update on the case, only to learn there wasn’t a case at all. Police launched an investigation, though the remains found weren’t identified as hers until 2015.
The sheriff’s office said Morrison’s family can’t remember the young man’s name. The family told officials they met him briefly in 1974 and several weeks later, when he was looking for her, so detectives are asking for the public’s help to find out who he was and where the two stayed.
Morrison met the young man at a job-training program in or near Phoenix, when she was living with relatives there, the sheriff’s office said. The two drove through Eugene on their way to Portland that summer, but family members did not know where they lived in Portland.
The family remembered the young man was slender, between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, and said he might have been black. He said he was going to work as a welder in a Portland shipyard or dock.
At some point, the couple had an argument, and after he went to work, Morrison was seen leaving their apartment with some belongings, according to the sheriff’s office. Her body was found about two months later.
Morrison was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds. She had thick, long, brown hair and psoriasis everywhere except on her face. She frequented coffee houses, where she would sing or play guitar, and was proficient in American Sign Language.
The sheriff’s office asked anyone with information about the former boyfriend, the couple or Morrison to contact sheriff’s Detective Craig Marler at 360-397-2108 or craig.marler@clark.wa.gov, or call the cold case tip line at 360-397-2036.
