Linda Kay Slawson

• Missing Since 01/26/1968
• Missing From Portland, Oregon
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 01/07/1949 (77)
• Age 19 years old
• Height and Weight 5'2, 135 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A white coat, a brown skirt and light brown shoes.
• Distinguishing Characteristics White female. Blonde hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Slawson was last seen in Portland, Oregon on January 26, 1968. She lived with her mother and siblings in the 5100 block of Southwest 209th Avenue in Aloha, Oregon and had a job selling encyclopedias door-to-door. She was selling her encyclopedias in southwest Portland the day she vanished, and was last seen near Southeast 45th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard. She left her purse behind in her car, and never picked up her last paycheck, which was for $125.

Slawson was the first confirmed victim of the serial killer Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos, who later confessed to murdering four young women between 1968 and 1969. A photograph of Brudos is posted with this case summary. He lived in the 1500 block of Southeast 47th Avenue when Slawson disappeared, in the neighborhood where she was selling encyclopedias.

He told investigators that Slawson had approached his home and he offered to buy a set of encyclopedias and invited her inside, then killed her and threw her body into the Willamette River, off the Wilsonville Bridge on Interstate 5. It was never recovered.

Brudos was arrested in June 1969 and subsequently pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in the deaths of Jan Susan Whitney, 23, who disappeared in November 1968; Karen Elena Sprinker, 19, who disappeared in March 1969; and Linda Dawn Salee, who 19, disappeared in April 1969. Salee and Sprinker's bodies were found in the Long Tom River in May 1969, and Whitney's body was found in the Willamette River in July that year.

Brudos was charged with murder in Slawson's disappearance as well, but the charge was dropped for lack of evidence in July 1969. He was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison for the other murders. By the time of his death in 2006, he was Oregon's longest-serving prisoner.

Slawson is the only known victim of Brudos whose body was never found. Foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.