ANOTHER BEAUTY KILLER COPYCAT?

Headline in The Portland Tribune, Thursday, October 22, 2009:
Gretchen Lowell Inspires ‘Possible Suicide’
by SUSAN WARD, Special to The Tribune

The body of an as-yet-to-be-identified victim was found in the middle of the floor of a SE Portland barroom in an apparent suicide possibly inspired by the Beauty Killer murders.

Police were called to Floyd’s Tavern on SE Powell early Wednesday morning by owner Floyd Sherman, who discovered the body when he came to open his bar for the day. “I have no idea who it is,” he told the Tribune exclusively. Floyd’s employee roster is limited to himself, his partner, and an occasional weekend bartender. “We don’t get a whole lot of foot traffic around here,” Sherman said, “just a few regulars. That’s a face I haven’t seen before.”

Police found an open bottle of whiskey with a full shot glass sitting beside it atop the bar. Next to the victim’s body was a journal filled with pictures of Gretchen Lowell, as well as articles and handwritten entries.
Investigators believe, because of the angle of the wounds, that they were self-inflicted. An autopsy was pending at press time.