The Forgotten Serial Killer

Summary

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Stolen Voices of Dole Valley: Episode 8 – The Forgotten Serial Killer

Date: September 30, 2025
Host: Carolyn Osorio
Podcast Network: Lemonada Media, Pie in the Sky Media, KSL Podcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the decades-long fight for justice and acknowledgment for the victims and survivors of Warren Forrest—“the forgotten serial killer” of the Pacific Northwest. Once a handsome stranger who stalked young hitchhiking women in the 1970s, Forrest’s crimes faded into obscurity after his conviction for a single murder, leaving an untold number of cases unresolved and families desperate for closure. The episode centers on Norma Jean Countryman, survivor and witness, and her daughter, Kimber, as they confront generational trauma and drive the search for answers. Their stories are interwoven with hard-fought victories in cold case investigations, culminating in the long-overdue identification of a Jane Doe and new murder charges against Forrest.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Warren Forrest: The Forgotten Serial Killer

• Forrest was suspected in numerous disappearances and murders of young women in the 1970s but was only convicted of one killing (Christa Blake) in 1979. For decades, the other cases stagnated in cold case files.
• “At some point, I dubbed Warren Forrest the forgotten serial killer, because that’s what he is.” – Kimber (01:04)
• For a long time, authorities saw no reason to revisit the cases, since Forrest was already in prison. There was, however, persistent fear he could potentially be released.
• Survivors and family members, like Norma Jean and her daughter Kimber, refused to let the story fade.

2. Lasting Trauma and Its Generational Impact

• Norma Jean describes the lifelong psychological effects of surviving Forrest’s attack—including not being believed at age 15 and feeling abandoned by the authorities.

  “If he had done his job, those three women would be alive and whole today.” – Norma Jean Countryman (02:11)

• Absence of therapy compounded Norma’s trauma, which in turn affected her parenting—her daughter Kimber grew up under severe protection and anxiety.

  “She always had to know where I was.” – Kimber, on her mother's protectiveness (05:14)

• Both mother and daughter revealed their own parallel experiences with sexual violence, and the difficulty of disclosing the truth, fearing disbelief and retraumatization.

  “I knew the police wouldn’t believe me… I couldn’t go through what my mom went through.” – Kimber (09:27) “She immediately told me, ‘I failed you. I tried so hard to protect you, and I failed you.’” – Kimber, about Norma’s reaction to her disclosure (11:41)

3. Breaking the Silence and Pursuing Justice

• Kimber took it upon herself to get answers—contacting authorities, researching old records, and ultimately writing to Warren Forrest.

  “I just started digging.” – Kimber (13:07)

• Forrest shocked Kimber by allowing his therapist to speak with her, granting access to his “sexual offender timeline”—a document listing his deviant acts.

  “My mouth was just hanging open. I was in shock. Because he talked about thirteen victims.” – Kimber (18:47)

• Kimber immediately shared the timeline with cold case detective Lindsay Arnold, which became pivotal evidence at Forrest’s 2014 parole hearing.

  “She walked into the parole board and said, ‘This has come into our possession… and he talks about victims that we don’t know about yet.’” – Kimber (22:29)

• Forrest’s parole was denied, but the reality of his unknown number of victims haunted survivors and families.

4. Family Advocacy and the Importance of Closure

• For families of the missing, like Michael Morrison (brother of Martha Morrison), the lack of answers was agonizing.

  “We as humans die two deaths. The first one is when our body fails. The second is when the last person speaks my name.” – Michael Morrison (35:28)

• Michael submitted DNA to national databases, eventually helping the identification of his sister’s remains—the Dole Valley Jane Doe—decades after her disappearance.

  “It was something like 59 million times more likely to be Martha than any other Caucasian female.” – Norma Jean Countryman (43:37)

• The painstaking linkage of Martha’s blood to Forrest’s dart gun provided the physical evidence needed for a new murder charge.

5. New Charges and the Fight for Accountability

• The cold case unit, using DNA and testimony from Norma and other survivors, reopened the investigation, leading to a 2020 trial and conviction of Warren Forrest for Martha Morrison’s murder (in addition to Christa Blake).

  “The opening statement of the prosecutor: ‘The defendant murdered Martha Morrison. He followed a very specific plan…’” (54:10)

• Survivors faced him again in court, powerfully testifying about their ordeals.

  “I am basically suspended between two trees…” – Norma recounting the attack (56:25)

• Forrest’s own parole hearing confessions were used as evidence, and the jury was visibly shaken by his emotionless descriptions.

  “There was a struggle. During the struggle, I choked the victim to death.” – Warren Forrest, describing Christa’s murder (59:57)

• Despite the hard-won conviction, many cases remain unresolved, underscoring survivors’ continued efforts and calls for closure.

  “Even though we, we know that he did these things, without having the judicial system say, ‘Yes, he did these,’ and he’s going to pay for them…having them say, ‘Yes, he did these things and acknowledge it,’ is closure.” – Norma Jean Countryman (34:50)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On being disbelieved by police:

“If he had done his job, those three women would be alive and whole today.” – Norma Jean Countryman (02:11)

On intergenerational trauma:

“For the entire year that my daughter was 15, she was allowed to go to school and come home.” – Kimber (11:16)

On reviewing Forrest’s timeline:

“My mouth was just hanging open. I was in shock.” – Kimber (18:47)

On the value of closure:

“We as humans die two deaths. The first one is when our body fails. The second is when the last person speaks my name.” – Michael Morrison (35:28)

Forrest’s chilling parole statement:

“Pretty much so, sir.” – Warren Forrest, admitting to utter detachment from his victims’ humanity (27:00)

The moment Martha’s DNA matched:

“The blood on that weapon was Martha Morrison's. I’m getting goosebumps right now just even saying that to you.” – Norma Jean Countryman (49:59)

On confronting Forrest in court:

“With Norma Jean and our Lachamas victim testifying... absolutely not even a tweak of emotion the whole time. It was pretty amazing.” – Retired detective Doug Maas (58:59)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:21–03:47: Backstory on Warren Forrest, forgotten victims, Norma and her fight for recognition.
• 04:49–08:01: Kimber recounts growing up with her mother’s silent trauma; discovering Forrest’s serial crimes via social media.
• 09:04–11:48: Generational trauma—Kimber’s own assault and reluctance to disclose.
• 13:07–17:14: Kimber’s investigation, contact with Forrest’s therapist, and the breakthrough of the sexual offender timeline.
• 18:39–22:29: The timeline’s evidence and its pivotal role at the parole hearing.
• 25:21–29:02: Forrest describes victim selection and violent acts at the 2014 parole hearing.
• 35:28–44:28: Michael Morrison’s promise to find his sister; the eventual DNA match to Dole Valley Jane Doe (Martha Morrison).
• 46:18–50:45: Rediscovering forensic evidence—dart gun, blood, and the Martha Morrison match.
• 53:35–62:32: The 2020 trial: survivor testimony, forensic evidence, and the emotional reactions of jury and survivors.
• 62:37–64:33: Verdict, aftermath, unresolved cases, and determination to keep the fight alive.

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Final Thoughts

Tone & Takeaway:
The episode underlines the tenacity, resilience, and pain of survivors and families who refuse to let victims become statistics or “stolen voices.” It avoids sensationalism, focusing on the toll of trauma, the failings and progress of the justice system, and the slow, painstaking work required for even partial closure.

A central theme emerges: Both in investigations and in living with trauma, silence is the enemy. Justice, recognition, and healing depend on advocacy, persistence, and the courage to revisit old wounds—often with no guarantee of resolution, but with the ever-present hope for acknowledgment.

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Next Episode Teaser:
The fight continues as new DNA evidence surfaces and famed forensic investigator Paul Holes joins the case, raising hopes that more stolen voices may finally be heard.

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Transcript

[Carolyn Osorio]

Lemonade. This series contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence. Throughout. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Stolen Voices of Dole Valley.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

He was left alone for over 30 years. But this individual who was thought to.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Have killed many women, and nobody goes.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Back and how can we try and solve these? It was just, he's probably. Good for him.

[Carolyn Osorio]

It was suspected that Warren Forrest was a serial killer, but he'd only been convicted of Christa Blake's murder back in 1979. And after the 70s, the missing persons and murdered cases attributed to him collected dust for decades, until the early 2000s, when Starr began to take up her sister Jamie Grissom's case with the help of investigative reporter Dan Tilkin.

[Kimber]

At some point, I dubbed Warren Forrest.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

The forgotten serial killer, because that's what he is.

[Kimber]

Nobody knew who he was. He's been in prison for all these years, with all these bodies attributed to him existing in a no man's land.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And I think in this case, so.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Many people in charge, well above my authority were saying, what do we gain by this? He's in prison and he's never getting out.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But actually, a lot of people were worried he was getting out. He'd started sex offender treatment, and he'd been in prison for more than 30 years for one murder.

[Kimber]

With Star's cooperation, we just kept doing more and more stories and trying to figure out why this had been forgotten, why nothing had happened.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A forgotten serial killer meant forgotten victims. Victims like Norma, for whom the passage of time hadn't dulled the pain of not being believed. For a long time, I blamed myself.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Because I couldn't make him believe me. And now I see it wasn't up to me to make him believe me. It was up to him to investigate, to take what I said at face value and leave his personal opinions aside and do his job. And if he had done his job, those three women would be alive and whole today.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And now, with a looming parole hearing, Norma was coming to terms with the possibility that Warren Forrest could be released into the world again.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I had received a notification that he was coming up for a hearing because he was coming up for parole in a couple years, and he wanted to be able to have access to the Internet and access with the outside world to see if he could acclimate to being free again. And that's when the darkness started again.

[Carolyn Osorio]

I'm your host, Carolyn Osorio. You're listening to Stolen Voices of Dole Valley, Episode eight, the Forgotten Serial Killer, Norma Jean Countryman. The trauma of what happened to her didn't end after she testified against Warren Forrest back in the late 1970s. 50 years. And you're still dealing with this. You're still dealing with the psychological trauma of being tied to the investigation, being tied to the case, how it's changed your life and how I'm tied.

[Kimber]

Even.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Even deceased, I am tied to everyone that is his victim, that they know of, and that is possibly his victim. I feel like we're sisters. It never goes away.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Norma will always be inextricably tied to this case. And because she didn't have access to therapy after the trial, she managed the only way she knew how to stuff it down. But the unprocessed trauma spilled into her life and her daughter's.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

No therapy. My mother didn't have money for it. Like you said, the sheriff's office didn't offer it. They wrote me off. They literally, in 1974, wrote me off. And that was the end of it for them. And I had things going on in my own life as a teenager with my father and my mother. And so, no, I just. That's the way I am. I just deal with it on my own.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But Norma wasn't alone. Her daughter, Kimber, grew up witnessing her mother's silent, lonely, and painful struggle.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

When I was really young, I didn't know the details, but I always knew something bad had happened to my mother.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Norma didn't realize the impact her unprocessed trauma would have on the lives of her children.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

My mom had to know where I was at all times. If I was riding my bicycle to a friend's house, I had to tell her exactly which friend. I had to call her as soon as I got there. And if we ever decided to go somewhere else, I had to call her to let her know. And then I had to call her when I got to the next place. So she always had to know where I was.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Norma's growing anxiety about the safety of her daughter was always simmering inside of her. But the fear boiled over when Kimber was 13 years old. One day, Kimber didn't come home from school, and Norma was convinced she'd been kidnapped.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

She called the police. They came to the house. They were doing a whole missing persons report.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Norma's panic spiraled. She had completely forgotten that Kimber had prearranged to meet her friends at the library after school.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And so as a 13, 12. 13 year old surrounded by my friends at the library, here comes this sheriff's deputy into the library to pick me up and put me in the back of his car. And take me home. Because my mom immediately went to she's been kidnapped and she's dead somewhere. And this was my entire life growing up.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The fear had been so raw for Norma, and yet she knew she owed her daughter an explanation that something horrible had happened to her. And when she told she wasn't believed.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

She left it at I was kidnapped. I was taken to the woods. He left and told me he was going to come back. And while he was gone, I managed to escape. I put two and two together that, you know, she had to have been found in some way.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Years passed before Norma told her daughter that the man who kidnapped her was named Warren Forrest.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I googled Warren Forrest. I googled my mom's name and I got a few hits.

[Carolyn Osorio]

This was around the year 2000. One of the online links led Kimber to a Facebook page Starr had created with details about her sister Jamie Grissom and the other cases attributed to Warren Forrest. By then, Starr had built a community around her Facebook page. Kimber was shocked as she read through the posts and comments. It was then on Star's page she realized for the first time that Warren Forrest was suspected of being a serial killer.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I didn't know he was a serial killer at the time. I didn't know that there were multiple victims. I thought it was a one off. It was Starr's website that made me realize, holy crap, there's so much more that went on than what I know. And there's even more that everybody doesn't know because he is a forgotten serial killer.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But when Kimber found out about how her mother had been treated after she escaped Horn Forest, Kimber's sadness turned to a frustrated anger.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

A huge part of me was outraged when I found out that they completely dismissed it and thought that she was making it up. And sadly, another part of me was not at all surprised because it's 2024 and people are still fighting to be believed. So I can only imagine what it was like for her in 1974, and especially because she was a 15 year old girl and she fit into a stereotype. It was easy for them to write it off as, oh, she was out with her friends getting stoned and missed her curfew and she just made this up so she wouldn't get in trouble. So I was outraged and I still am on her behalf. But at the same time, I was not surprised.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In part, she wasn't surprised because it had happened to her too. When Kimber was 15 years old, despite all of Norma's efforts to protect her daughter Kimber, was sexually assaulted, horrifically sexually.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Assaulted, and left pretty much for to die.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Sadly, Kimber didn't tell anyone.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I never reported it to the police, mostly because I. I knew the police wouldn't believe me. I was a party girl, and so I knew they wouldn't believe it. They. It would be a lot. The usual questions. What were you wearing? What did you say? Things like that. And I just. I couldn't go through what my mom went through knowing that they didn't believe me.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber didn't tell her parents either.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I didn't want them to look at me and no longer see their little girl, see their daughter, but see a rape victim.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And in the back of your mind now, do you think there was a little of you that felt like what happened to you might re. Traumatize your mom in some way because she had been so overprotective?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

A thousand percent. I knew it would. Growing up, we knew my mom was, I hate to say fragile, but fragile. She couldn't handle bad things. And I knew that with as overprotective as she had been, if I told her that this had happened to me, she would have taken it upon herself and felt like she had failed me.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber was in her late 20s when she couldn't bury the trauma of what happened inside herself any longer.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I had been in very intense therapy for a couple of years to deal with it. At that point, I hadn't even told my husband what happened. I didn't tell anybody. And my therapist kept telling me, you need to tell people. You need to trust them with this truth and trust that they're still going to love you regardless of what happened.

[Carolyn Osorio]

So many survivors of assaults, we just hold onto it and don't tell anyone. It just spills out because. Were you being overprotective with your daughter?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

My daughter is actually sitting next to me, and the look she's giving me right now. Yeah, because my mom was 15 when she was kidnapped, and then I was 15 when I was assaulted. For the entire year that my daughter was 15, she was allowed to go to school and come home.

[Carolyn Osorio]

It was tough because when Kimber finally told her mother what she'd been keeping a secret all these years, Norma took it as hard as she expected.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

She immediately told me, I failed you. I tried so hard to protect you, and I failed you.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But over time, Kimber was able to make her mother see that what had happened to her when she was 15 wasn't Norma's fault. Just like Kimber had worked through what had Happened to her wasn't her fault either. Kimber wanted to work with her mother to break the insidious cycle of generational trauma.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

My mom is a very strong person, but she's also fragile in a way. And I think she just spent so many years knowing that this thing had happened to her, this, you know, traumatic experience, and then knowing that the people that should have believed her and protected her, the police. Police didn't. And that hurt her so bad that she kind of just gave up. I couldn't allow that, especially after what happened to me and how many years I went through that. And then when I started advocating for myself, I wanted her to do the same. But it was so hard for her because she had spent so many years just accepting that nobody was going to believe her. And so I felt like maybe if I got more information, I could help her understand and come to terms with it and then advocate for herself. And so I just started digging.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Remember, with little news coverage of the case over the years, Star's Facebook page had been Kimber's primary source of information.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I emailed the Department of Corrections, I emailed the public affairs of Clark county sheriffs, just anybody I could. And I kept getting shut down every way. It's such an old case. We don't have those documents anymore. They're in our archives. We're not sure where they are. I felt like I had no way to get the information that I needed. And honestly, I also knew that court transcripts, as much as they would give me technical details, they weren't going to answer the question of why. The only person that was going to answer that question was Forrest himself.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber's interest had evolved from wanting to know every detail about what had happened to her mother to wanting justice for all the other young women whose cases were still unsolved. So were you wanting to help solve cases, too?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

100%. Because I had spoken to Star by this point, and just talking to her and hearing the anguish of never knowing what happened to Jamie, knowing but never knowing for sure, and then reading about the other victims that they think he killed and how some of them had children that will never know their mother and will never have the answers of what happened. And I just. Though he was never prosecuted for what he did to my mother, he admitted to it, and she at least has that closure, and these people won't ever get that closure.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And then the unimaginable happened. Around 2013, Kimber learned from her mother that Warren Forrest was trying to get out of prison the first time he.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Came up for parole was when I really started going down the rabbit hole.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber was haunted by the case. What had happened to her mother and the other victims and the why. What makes a serial killer do what they do? In this case, the only way to find out was to reach out to Warren Forrest. But what if her unrelenting quest for information backfired? What if she wrote to Warren Forrest and then he was released from prison? She had a family. Did she really want to get on a suspected serial killer's radar?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Even though we kept being told there's no chance he's getting parole, crazier things have happened.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And what about her mother?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I called my mom one day and I said, you know, this is what I'm thinking of doing. What are your thoughts? And if you tell me, hell, no, do not do that, I will accept that 100% and I will back off. And she was enthusiastic about it because she did have questions like I did.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber took a leap and wrote a letter to Warren Forrest in 2014. She asked Forrest why he had chosen her mother.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And I fully expected to never hear anything because I knew that he. He didn't do interviews, he didn't do things like that.

[Carolyn Osorio]

She was shocked when she got a call from a victim advocate who told her Warren Forrest had authorized his therapist to speak with Kimber on his behalf.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

He has signed a release to allow you to speak to his therapist because he was going through a sexual offender therapy program, which is mandatory.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Communicating through a therapist was a bit unorthodox. And Kimber believed Warren Forest's motivation for speaking to her through his therapist was totally self serving.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I know exactly what he wanted. It was right before his parole hearing, and he wanted to look good for the parole board by giving me the answers that I was seeking, giving me some kind of closure.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But she also recognized the rare opportunity she was being afforded. Since he'd been incarcerated, Forrest had never spoken to the police about his crimes. Kimber would spend two hours on the phone with both a victim advocate and Warren Forest therapist.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I asked, does he remember my mother? Yes, he remembers your mother. He's talked about her in group many times. I asked, why my mother? You know, was she a victim of opportunity or was it her specifically? And he said she fit his type. If she had been five years older or five years younger or male, he would have not ever abducted her.

[Carolyn Osorio]

At some point in the conversation, Kimber learned that the release Warren Forrest had signed could potentially provide her with important information.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

It was a throwaway comment that the therapist made something along the lines of, well, his sexual offender timeline. You know, he. He said this, and I said, hang on, back up. What is the sexual offender timeline? And he said, well, for our program, every participant must do a timeline of every single incident of sexual deviance from peeping all the way up to whatever got them caught and put in prison. And I was like, okay, that's interesting.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber knew she needed to at least ask if she could get a copy of Warren Force sexual offender timeline.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And I kind of figured he was going to tell me no, but he said, yeah, that's. That's covered under the release. And I said, excellent. Do I need to keep that protected? Because I'd like to give a copy to my mother. And he said, no, you're not a mental health official. You're not bound by HIPAA laws in that way. So, no, once it is released to you, you can. You can give it to whoever. So he sent me a copy of it. I started reading through it, and my mouth was just hanging open. I was in shock. Because he talked about 13 victims, 13 women that he had offended against to include my mother and Krista and the Lacamus Lake victim.

[Carolyn Osorio]

To be clear, in reviewing Warren Forest sexual history timeline, he referenced nine individual victims. Then he said he'd peeped on a group of 16 year olds when they were skinny dipping. Next on his timeline, he described his crimes against Krista, Norma, and Susan. He admitted that his first offense happened when he was 20 years old, then vaguely described picking up what he referred to as a female hitchhiker and drove her into the desert where he sexually assaulted her. This would have likely been when he was in the military and out of state. But he didn't give names and dates or many details about these crimes, only the age he was at the time of the offense and things like, I.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Abducted this one woman and then I tortured her with needles, but then I released her. I kidnapped this other woman and tortured her. And when I released her, she started screaming, but nothing happened and she just ran off. I was just shocked because how did these women supposedly get freed? Why did he let them go? And nothing happened. But at the same time, part of me was not shocked because of the way that they treated my mother.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Conveniently, the crimes he'd listed had either been adjudicated, as in Krista Blake's murder and the Lacamus Lake victim's assault, or the statute of limitations had run out decades before. But instinctively, Kimber knew, sharing this information with investigators on the cold case team could be a game changer.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I also talked to my mom and said, hey, he's talking about a whole lot of victims in here that he's never discussed anywhere else because, you know, it's bad for him legally. Do you think I should send it to the cold case detective? And my mom said, absolutely, send it to her right now.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The detective she was referring to was Lindsay Arnold.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I called Lindsay, and I explained to Lindsay, I said, hey, this is, you know, I had this phone call, and I said, he signed a release. And Lindsay was silent for a half a second and went, he what? And I said, yeah, he signed a release so I could talk to his therapist. And she kind of huffed in that, you know, I'm not. I'm trying not to laugh way. And I said, so, you know, he answered all these questions, and I got a copy of his sexual offender timeline. She went, send me a copy of that. I immediately sent it to her.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Kimber knew sending a copy of Warren's force sexual offender timeline to Detective Lindsey Arnold was like passing a baton in a relay race ahead of his parole hearing. And this share proved invaluable.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

She walked into the parole board and said, this was given to us through proper channels. This has come into our possession.

[Carolyn Osorio]

She's referring to Warren Forest's sexual offender timeline, a document the board had never seen before.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And he talks about victims that we don't know about yet.

[Kimber]

Okay. We are on the record in the matter of Warren Forest. Doc number is 287319. This is a 100 releaseability.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In all of my research, this audio From Warren Force 2014 parole hearing was the first time I heard his voice. A video recording of the proceeding was destroyed after the court's retention period had expired. But it's easy to imagine the still room after everyone had shuffled into their seats and the murmured whispers hushed as the proceedings began.

[Kimber]

Forrest, Normally when we meet with guys right after treatment, we kind of go back and we start talking about the index offense and any other unadjudicated and then your treatment experience following that. You okay? You willing to do that?

[Carolyn Osorio]

Yes, it's likely. The parole board members sat in a row at the front of the room, and Warren Forrest was most likely sitting silently at a table next to his attorney. From the outset, Forrest's attorney made it clear his client had no intention of disclosing any information related to his unadjudicated victims.

[Kimber]

You know, at this point, you know, he's not disclosing him to law enforcement. He's been visited, as everybody knows. Yeah. So. But we still want to have a hearing about over his treatment and over what changes he says he's made and all that.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Again, I didn't see the video, but from the pictures I have seen of Warren Forrest over the years, it was clear that after spending more than 30 years in prison, his mask of youth had faded into oblivion. He was now frail and haggard, with a receded hairline. He tied his thinning steely gray hair into a limp ponytail. His once crystalline blue eyes had dulled. He looked nothing like the good looking stranger who had enticed so many young girls to their doom with the offer of a ride in his pale blue van. Here, Warren Forest described how he chose his victims.

[Kimber]

When I was offending, most of my distortions were along the lines of a black and white rule. Either you were good people or bad people. I would just from perception determine whether a female was a good girl or a bad girl. And so by the way they dressed or appearance spoke or just in my mind, just seeing them from a distance, I mean, it didn't have to do anything. So you just kind of made up whatever you wanted to believe about them. You'd see something and you'd say, well, that's a bad girl. Right. But it was a. It's like a distortion feeding a distortion. A lot of assumptions. A lot of things that I had told myself growing up. Things I had been told to me as I grew up. Such as good girls don't hitchhike, things like that. Good girls don't accept rise with strain act. All right, so suppose that you had determined that they were a bad girl. So why did you feel entitled to murder them? Well, it wasn't a matter of murdering them. It was a matter of they were an object, I could fulfill my sexual desires. Well, you just told me they weren't an object. They were a bad girl. They were a human being. Right. But I didn't see them as having feelings or emotions. Okay, so you were just totally detached as a human in terms of their own humanity? Pretty much so, sir.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Pretty much so, sir. It's hard to hear Warren Forrest in this audio because he speaks so softly. But when he described how he murdered Christa, his delivery spoke volumes.

[Kimber]

Abducted a 19 year old female stranger under the rules of giving her a ride. Instead of taking her to her destination, I drove her to an isolated destination truck maintenance yard. After arriving at the vehicle maintenance yard, I attacked the individual while forcing the victim to undress. There was a struggle. During the struggle, I choked the victim to death.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Forrest was Then asked to describe his crimes against Susan, the Lacamus Lake victim who had crawled out of her grave after he'd left her for dead.

[Kimber]

I abducted a 20 year old female stranger to an isolated area. Tortured the victim by shooting her in the breast with darts from an air pistol.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Now, I want to pause here in order to warn you as I did in a previous episode earlier in the series. I told you then when I described a very specific detail of what Warren Forrest had done to Susan after he'd abducted her back then. Susan described how he penetrated her with a plastic tube. Here, Warren Forrest acknowledged what he'd done to Susan.

[Kimber]

Imagine you raped the victim with a plastic tube. Angrily raped the victim, penal anal. I choked the victim and stabbed the victim and left him for death.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The reason why this detail could be important is that this plastic tube was collected as evidence during a search warrant. But the tubing was later either destroyed or given back to Warren Forest's mother in law after he'd been committed to Western State. If you'll recall, a hose or plastic tubing had been found near Karen Weil's body on the Tide Flats. Karen was a fellow patient at Western State Mental Hospital who'd been murdered a few weeks after Warren Forest arrived. That tubing was collected as evidence, but has since been lost. Karen's murder is still unsolved. But back at the hearing, the panel continued to ask questions about Susan.

[Kimber]

You thought she was dead when you left. Clearly we did plenty to result in death. But you didn't hide the body or anything. It was a wooded area and she put under some pepper branches and she managed to crawl to get help. Yes. But you, in your mind, she was dead and you left her. Yeah. You tortured your victim. You shot her with darts. Yes. And then you killed her, basically, is what you thought. And so you were getting aroused by the violence. Yes, sir.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Now, ahead of this hearing, the parole board had received background information on the Warren Forest investigation from the prosecuting attorney's office. But according to Kimber, the file material they'd received didn't include Warren Forest's confidential offender timeline. The one he'd inadvertently given her access to after he signed a release. Remember, Kimber had pretty much immediately sent a copy of that to cold case detective Lindsay Arnold.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

She gave it to the parole board who did not have access to it prior to that due to HIPAA regulations protecting it and the doctor patient confidentiality.

[Carolyn Osorio]

I didn't have access to the audio recording of the follow up hearing where Warren Forrest would be told whether or not he would be approved for parole. A Department of Corrections employee explained to me that the court's retention period for audio and video hearings is only two years. But Kimber had requested the audio from the follow up hearing in 2014. That's where she learned just how important her role was in speaking with Warren Force therapist and also getting that timeline.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

His attorney advised him not to talk to me because it was so close to his parole board hearing and he didn't think anything good could come of it. Forrest went and signed the release without his attorney's knowledge. I don't think he knew how much he was allowing me access to. I think he was just under the assumption that when he signed that release, I was going to ask my questions and be done and that was going to going to be it and it was going to look good to the parole board that he had done this favor for me.

[Carolyn Osorio]

With so many unanswered questions and unresolved cases, the board would deny Warren Force requests for parole.

[Kimber]

This is one of the most difficult cases I've had as a board member. When I read the file material, it says that I see comments where you say, I'd just like to put that in the past and I'm thinking about my wife and those kind of things and, and that's understandable. But there's a whole group of people out in the community that still wonder what happened to their lost one. And there's all kinds of unadjudicated, unresolved issues out there that you may or may not be aware of. And only you can provide more information.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And here's where the number of potential warned for his victims could be substantially higher than the very vague information on his sexual offender timeline. When Warren Forrest was denied parole in 2014, I got a copy of the board's findings, which included an overview of a psychological evaluation where Warren Forrest disclosed having numerous unadjudicated victims who might be living or dead. And these offenses took place in four different states. Further, Forrest disclosed he was constantly preoccupied by with finding a victim he could isolate. And described that the shortest period of time between offending was probably five days and could be sooner if he found a victim. So the number of victims he disclosed on his offender timeline doesn't reflect that admission. But the thing about Warren Forrest is that in a few years he would have another shot at parole. A worrying thought for Detective Lindsey Arnold, knowing that he's in the indeterminate sentencing.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Review and he's such a model prisoner. Yes, he could get out. And then we have unmanaged cases where.

[Carolyn Osorio]

We don't know where they are, we.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Have bodies that aren't found.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And with so many unsolved cases attributed to Warren Forrest, many believed that a denial of parole wasn't enough. For one thing, however small a chance that he could get out of prison, it was still a possibility, which was extremely stressful for the victims and their families. And then there was the lack of resolution. Many of them felt as if they'd been left to twist in the wind of uncertainty and despair. After nearly five decades, they still longed for justice, or at the very least, some kind of resolution that documented and acknowledged the unbearable emotional toll these unsolved cases have had on generations of families.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

It's a lack of finality that's the biggest thing. Even though we, we know that he did these things without having the judicial system say, yes, he did these and he's going to pay for them. And even if he doesn't get another prison sentence, having them say, yes, he did these things and acknowledge it is closure. And that's the biggest thing. The survivors, the family, we need that closure.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But unbeknownst to Kimber and Norma, there was someone else out there who was also seeking answers for his missing loved one.

[Kimber]

From my mom. Before she died, she always said, you know, she just wants to know where her baby went. And I was given the command and I said that I would do it was to find my sister. We as humans die two deaths. The first one is when our body fails. The second is when the last person speak my name.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Michael Morrison was tormented by this idea. His half sister, 17 year old Martha, had seemingly vanished without a trace in September of 1974. Decades later, her disappearance was still like a festering wound that never healed. Michael and Martha had different fathers, but he'd promised their dying mother that he would never stop looking for her. Michael and Martha were originally from Eugene, Oregon. He was living in Alaska. The last time he spoke to her that fall, Martha had called and told him she'd gotten into an argument with her boyfriend and she was planning a trip to Portland, about 100 miles north of Eugene.

[Kimber]

And in 74, it wasn't uncommon for girls go hitchhiking, you know, because it didn't cost any money. You know, you just went and talked to people and it's always fun. Most of the time.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Most of the time. After that phone conversation, Michael never heard from Martha again. No one had. Up in Alaska, he felt helpless. His little sister usually called every week. Her silence was ominous. He didn't want to believe that something Horrible had happened to her.

[Kimber]

I didn't know where to go, where to look for her.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Michael lived for years with an unsettled grief and the promise he made to his dying mother that he would find out what happened to Martha. After decades of discussion with no answers, Michael's wife happened to have a conversation with a detective in Alaska about her husband's missing sister.

[Kimber]

The detective got DNA from me and told me to call Eugene and make a police report, which I did.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In 2010, Michael submitted his DNA to the national center for Missing and Exploited Children, and he filed a missing persons report with the Eugene Police Department, because that was the city where Martha was last seen alive at a family gathering. These actions in a small way, eased the burden of the promise he'd made to his dying mother.

[Kimber]

She always said, you know, she just wants to know where her baby went, you know, And I was given the command, and I said that I would do it was to find my sister.

[Carolyn Osorio]

From your mom?

[Kimber]

Yeah, from my mom.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Before she died, however, Martha's mother passed away, not knowing what happened to her baby. And as time wore on without any answers, Michael began to lose hope.

[Kimber]

Just wasn't much we could do. But without more information, it was just hard to deal with.

[Carolyn Osorio]

What Michael didn't realize was that someone else was looking for his half sister. Uploading his DNA into the same national missing person's database would change everything. A little reminder. Around 2006, Starr and reporter Dan Tilkin tracked down the missing bones of the Dole Valley Jane Doe. They sent the Medical Examiner's office a ups receipt from Dr. Clyde Snow documenting he had returned the skull of the Dole Valley Jane Doe back to the ME's office in the late 70s. Up until that point, both the ME's office and the Sheriff's Department had told Starr the bones had never been returned from Dr. Snow.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

There are all these little pieces.

[Carolyn Osorio]

That's Nikki Costa. Before she retired, Nikki was the operations manager for the Clark County ME's office. She had been tasked with finding the remains.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Somebody along the line mislabeled that. So that is where the problem started.

[Carolyn Osorio]

For more more than three decades, the Sheriff's office just accepted that the bones had been lost.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

I guess Forrest's luck is that, you know, he was doing these dastardly crimes in the 70s when technology wasn't what it is today.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Now that the remains had been found again in Carol Valenzuela's murder file, they were sent to the lab for DNA testing and a profile was successfully extracted from the skull and uploaded into the national missing persons database. The hope, of course, was that a family member was looking for their Jane Doe. In 2013, three years after Michael had uploaded his DNA, Nikki received an unexpected call from the Eugene police department. They'd gotten a preliminary hit on the dole valley Jane Doe.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

A low statistical connection to Michael Morrison's submission. Connected Michael Morrison's submission with my unidentified person's submission. We were all ecstatic because, you know, at that point, we're 39 years since this girl had been found, and, you know, we've gone through this where no one could even work the case because we didn't even know where the remains were, to finally, our first possible lead ever as to who she might be.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But their excitement was tempered. The hit was only a partial match. Michael was Martha's half brother. His DNA submission connected Martha to their shared family tree. But it wasn't enough to identify Martha definitively as the Dole valley Jane Doe. So Nikki reached out to Reba, Martha's sister. As a full sibling, Reba had more DNA in common with Martha. But based on the technology, in 2013, Reba's DNA profile, when compared to the dole valley Jane Doe, confirmed that she was a relative to the Morrison family. But it wasn't enough to identify her as Martha Morrison.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Reba is her full sister. But the statistics, again, weren't enough. Now, I don't know, in today's DNA analysis Whether we would have had to go as far as we did.

[Carolyn Osorio]

As far as we did. Nikki's ominous reference to the lengths she had to go through to identify the Dole valley Jane Doe. Because like everything else in this case, nothing would be easy. Both of Martha's parents were dead. The only option left was to exhume Martha's father so they could extract a DNA sample, which would be expensive.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

My best guess is exhumation is probably somewhere between 10 and $20,000.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And there were no guarantees. What if, once Martha Morrison's father was exhumed and a DNA sample was extracted from his bones, they found out he wasn't her birth father?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Most people know who their mom is, but your dad may or may not always be who you think he is, so that was a possibility, or that it was going to be him, you know, it would be her father. So, you know, there was a little bit of pins and needles waiting on that outcome.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In 2015, after 40 years, the unidentified young woman found next to Carol Valenzuela got her name back. Using the DNA from Martha's father, the Dole Valley Jane Doe was positively identified as Martha Morrison.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

It was something like 59 million times more likely to be Martha than any other Caucasian female. And that the probability of relatedness was like almost 100%. It was like 99 point and a bunch of nines after it.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And Michael finally got the call he'd been both hoping for and dreading ever since his sister disappeared. Nikki told Michael that Martha had been positively identified as the Dole Valley Jane Doe. It was a relief. Michael had finally made good on the promise he'd made to his mother. He found her baby, but at the same time it confirmed that his little sister had been murdered. Finding out was like cracking open a Pandora's box of emotions.

[Kimber]

We cried and then we tried to figure out what had happened and who had done it. And then it wasn't really a perfect answer because they didn't really know. They didn't know who it was, but they had a good idea.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Is that when you first named Lauren Forrest?

[Kimber]

Yeah.

[Carolyn Osorio]

I was glad that she was finally identified.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Of course I.

[Carolyn Osorio]

In a strange way, I was sad too because. Because I still don't have my sister's remains. Starr would never give up on finding Jamie or the other stolen voices. And now she had a cold case squad to help her do just that. The identification of Martha Morrison was a seismic shift at just the right time. The case was no longer idle. There were many hands working to connect the loose threads of the Warren Forest investigation. The fact that Martha had been recovered near Carol Valenzuela's remains was significant. Both victims had been on Detective Mike Davidson's butcher paper role since 1976. They'd never been able to connect Warren Forrest to Carol. But now that Martha's identity had been revealed, it was time to go back and see if there was any physical connection between her and Warren Forrest. Retired prosecutor Denny Hunter.

[Kimber]

The things we did was look at physical evidence on our closed cases and see if there's any way we could associate them with unsolved. Of the nine prospective force cases, six of them were in that unsolved category at the time. So yeah, well, let's see what we've got. And I, we had a meeting at the evidence office and I basically told the detectives about the dart gun situation.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Four decades later, the vivid courtroom drama that unfolded during Warrenfor's first trial had not faded from Denny's memory. A mix up with the dart gun had led the defense to accuse the prosecution of manufacturing evidence. But a criminalist back in 1978 had been able to cross prove the prosecution had worn Forrest Starkun.

[Kimber]

He was able to identify markings and a stain. And that said, well, there's just really no doubt about it. The one that the prosecution has is the correct one. This one doesn't match the crime scene photos.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Nikki was at a cold case meeting when Denny dropped a bombshell.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And Denny said, I remember in evidence is the dart gun from the Krista Blake trial.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But more importantly, that gun had a blood stain on it. Given the history of evidence storage in this case, would it still be there? In May of 2017, investigators went to the Clark County Sheriff's Office evidence room where they found a cardboard box related to the Warren Forest investigation. When they opened the box, one that likely hadn't seen the light of day since 1979. Inside they found a paper bag. And within the bag, they pulled out the dart gun, Labeled and sealed in the original plastic packaging. The dart gun was sent to the lab to determine if they could get a DNA profile from the stain. The answer was yes. After all these years, a forensic examiner was able to extract a complete DNA profile.

[Kimber]

We then went and got swabs, cheek swabs from the survivors, sisters, brothers, mothers, whoever we could get of our victims.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Was the blood stain from one of their known victims? Was it from Warren Forest? Or was it from a victim they didn't know about? The first DNA sample they sent to the lab was from Susan, the Lacamus Lake victim, because she was his last victim before he was arrested in October of 1974. But the cold case unit hoped the blood didn't belong to her or Norma or Krista Blake. Warren Forest had already been prosecuted for the crimes against the Lacamas Lake victim and Krista Blake. Enormous crime was now beyond the statute of limitations.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

If that blood on that weapon belonged to Krista, then it was not going to be at all usable or helpful because he's in on that one. If it was on an assault victim, the statute of limitations would have run out, right? Or is it his? Right, like what. What's on this weapon?

[Kimber]

And I assume it was probably from the like misfire. She was very bloody and he was shooting darts and stuff like that.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Denny held his breath when Heather, a technician from the Washington State Patrol crime lab, delivered the news that the blood on the dart gun was not a match for the Lacamus Lake victim.

[Kimber]

Well, that just set off all kinds of alarm bells.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Who did the blood belong to? According to the butcher paper roll, the next two presumed murder victims after the Lacamus Lake victim was Carol Valenzuela and The now identified Martha Morrison. Martha's DNA profile had been isolated at a different lab. An immediate request was made by the cold case squad to get it over to Heather, the technician at the Washington State Patrol crime lab.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

And I remember sitting around the table waiting and Heather coming in and then saying that the blood on that weapon was Martha Morrison's. And I'm getting goosebumps right now just even saying that to you. It was mind blowing that we had come so far, so many unanswered questions. And were it not for Lindsey saying, we need Denny to come back. We need Denny to come volunteer, and Denny who's got an amazing memory and being able to say, I remember this gun had a dot on it that they said was blood that needs to be tested today.

[Carolyn Osorio]

All the different threads in this case that had to come together to make this connection, Beginning with star and reporter Dan tilkin tracking down Dr. Snow and his UPS receipt and Martha's brother submitting his DNA to the National Missing Persons database with a hope and a prayer that he would finally get some kind of answer as to what happened to his sister. It was Martha's DNA on his dart gun. That was just huge, undeniable physical evidence connecting Warren Forrest to the murder of Martha Morrison and circumstantially connecting him to Carol Valenzuela's too, based on proximity. However, when investigators presented Warren Forest with the DNA evidence, hoping he'd confess, he was silent. He remained silent. When in February 2018, the cold case unit formally submitted their investigation related to Carol Valenzuela and Martha Morrison to the prosecuting attorney of Clark county, they requested that Warren Forrest be charged with with two counts of first degree murder. The prosecution decided to play it safe because there was no DNA evidence connecting Warren Forrest to Carol Valenzuela's murder. He was only charged with the first degree murder of Martha Morrison. In December of 2019, a new murder charge against Warren Forrest meant that every witness from Christa Blake's trial would be called to testify again.

[Kimber]

I had a reporter contact me prior to this last trial. The reporter commented that she could not understand, based upon the evidence, why Warren Forrest would put the family of the homicide victim he was on trial for through that ordeal. She said, I don't know why. And my answer to her was what I believe is he was a sexual psychopath and he could relive the incident through this last trial.

[Carolyn Osorio]

That's Sergeant Michael Slider. He was the first officer on the scene at Lacamas Lake. After Susan had crawled out of her Makeshift grave.

[Kimber]

I don't want to think about it now. I've been retired for 26 years. And the nightmares, because I had a. Other cases that were like this and memories. And the nightmares stopped about 20 years ago. And then I get a subpoena a few months ago to testify in this trial. And it brought it all back up.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Superior session, the Honorable Robert presiding. Thank you.

[Kimber]

Please be seated. We're back on the record then in the fourth matter.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The trial began in January of 2020. Warren Forest was 73 years old. Retired detective Doug Mass sitting behind him.

[Kimber]

During most of that trial. And if you've ever been around something or someone that you think is true evil, it just feels like there's a presence. And I'm. I'm not kidding. The hair on the back of my neck would stand up. Just sitting there listening to the testimony and trying to see what his reaction was. Was. And it was just quite chilling, actually.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The opening statement of the prosecutor.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

The defendant murdered Arthur Morrison. He followed a very specific plan, a plan that involved a very specific weapon and a very specific type of girl. It had a very familiar beginning, middle and end. This is a plan that the defendant himself issued when he admits to the crimes that he committed against Krista, against Norma. And the evidence is going to show throughout this trial that Warren Forrest is the one that murdered Martha in no Valley in 1974. It will show that the defendant was acting on a plan that he had attempted with Norma and. And that he very sadly completed with Krista and Martha. At the end of this trial, the state is going to ask that you find the defendant guilty of murdering Martha Morrison.

[Kimber]

Thank you.

[Carolyn Osorio]

The defense's opening statement was more of a reminder to the jurors that it wasn't the defense's job to prove their client was innocent, but rather the prosecutions to prove that Warren Forrest was guilty of Martha Morrison's murder beyond a reasonable.

[Kimber]

Doubt throughout this trial, as the court is instructed. You presume Mr. Forest innocent. That remains. That presumption remains throughout the entire trial, throughout all the presentation of evidence. At the end of the trial, we'll be asking for a not guilty verdict. A verdict that means not proven. The state has not met its burden. It can't show you that Mr. Forest, number one, committed homicide. And more importantly, number two, the state has not proven that he had the premeditated intent to kill this individual. So thank you for attention.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Now, before the trial even began, the judge ruled the prosecution could not present evidence related to the Carol Valenzuela murder investigation. Even Though her remains were found near Martha Morrison in the remote wilderness of Dole Valley. But as in Krista Blake's trial, testimony from Norma and Susan would be allowed because it spoke to premeditation and his M.O. norma's testimony was powerful.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Pulls me towards another tree away from me. Pulls my legs, my knees, and stretches me out on that path with my head against the tree and pulls the rope around the other tree and ties it off. So now I am basically suspended between two trees. Although I'm lying on the ground, my head is a tree attached to this tree, and my ankles are pulled towards that tree.

[Kimber]

Once you're, I guess, firmly tied to both those trees, did he then say or do anything?

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Yes, he struck me in the eye. He hit me very hard, and he said, I'm going to wait out there, and you don't know how long I'm going to wait. But if I hear any fussing, that's mild compared to what you will get.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Susan once again endured the trauma of describing how Warren Forrest had shot her in the chest with steel darts.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

He fondles my breasts, and then he goes in to his box and brings out this gun and points it at me. And I think it's this lethal weapon. I think it's a revolver. I think I'm gonna die. And then he pulls the trigger, and I don't die, and he just keeps pulling the trigger. And so my chest is bare and he's. These darts land in my chest and my stomach. And he does it about five or ten times, and then he quits and starts pulling them out and says, did it hurt?

[Carolyn Osorio]

The jury would hear that the pistol grip of that same dart gun had Martha Morrison's blood on it. Retired detective Doug Maas took the stand and described how Norma helped him measure the distance from where Warren Forrest had tied her between two trees at Tukes Mountain. So he could then measure the distance to Christa's shallow grave.

[Kimber]

This is a sketch that I made on July 17th of 1978. And what does it show? We found the marker of the Christa Blake crime scene where her remains were found. And then Norma Jean pointed out the tree that she was tied to. And so I essentially took a sketch that located the specific tree that she was tied to. And then I also sketched the distance between the Christoplake grave and the tree that she pointed out to me.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Thank you.

[Carolyn Osorio]

When he wasn't on the stand, Doug described what it was like sitting in the courtroom.

[Kimber]

Think about this. With Norma Jean and our Lachamas victim testifying I mean, they're not 20ft from him in the courtroom and testifying for hours in great detail about what he had put them through and absolutely not even a tweak of emotion the whole time. It was pretty amazing, which I don't know. I think that played in ultimately to the jury. My take was, was the jury was a little reluctant to kind of look at him. But the prosecutor was very sharp in keeping their attention kind of focused occasionally on Warren. So as the ladies were telling their story, you could watch the jury just occasionally they'd look over at Warren and just give him the, the evil eye.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Unlike in his last trial, Warren Forrest didn't testify. However, the prosecution played audio from that 2014 parole hearing where he flatly described his crimes against Krista and the Lacamas Lake victim.

[Kimber]

I abducted a 19 year old female stranger under the rules of giving her a ride. Instead of taking her to her destination, I drove her to an isolated truck maintenance yard where I had part time work. After arriving at the vehicle maintenance yard, I attacked the individual while forcing the victim to undress. There was a struggle. During the struggle, I choked the victim to death.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Doug said the jury had a visceral reaction to hearing Warren Forrest describe how he murdered Krista.

[Kimber]

And then of course the jury got to listen to, listen to an audio tape of his confession to those two cases to the parole board. And I think that that of course helped cinch it too.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And of course a huge part of the the prosecution's case was the physical evidence. Martha's blood found on Warren Forest dart gun.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Law enforcement came up and they found Martha's remains. Her skeleton was labeled as Jane doe for almost 41 years before she was finally identified as Martha Morrison. Thanks to advancement in DNA science, DNA has also identified her killer. You know what happened to her? The state has proven it beyond a reasonable doubt. Almost 50 years ago, the defendant Warren Forrest murdered Mark Morrison.

[Carolyn Osorio]

But would it be enough to convince the jury? In closing, Warren Forrest's attorney echoed what appeared to be his only defense strategy. The prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that his client murdered Martha Morrison.

[Kimber]

The only evidence that you have is that presumptive blood stain on the butt of the dart gun. So what does that mean? It doesn't necessarily tell you the cause of death. There's no evidence of actual torture of Martha. There's no indications of darts down at the location of where the remains were or anything that indicated from objective observation of her remains that there were signs of torture. That's just an assumption by a State.

[Carolyn Osorio]

After just 90 minutes of deliberation, the judge read the jury's verdict.

[Kimber]

We, the jury, find the above named defendant guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree.

[Carolyn Osorio]

A second murder conviction meant Warren Forrest, by the FBI's definition, was a serial killer. It was a hard won and expensive victory. But the cold case unit was disbanded and the other unsolved cases were once again put away. And the inevitable question that had plagued this investigation for so long was once again back on the table. And I think in this case, so.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Many people in charge, well above my authority were saying, what do we gain by this? He's in prison and he's never getting out.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And now Detective Lindsay Arnold wasn't there to keep pushing to pursue the other cases. But for Norma and her daughter Kimber, the battle for justice wasn't over.

[Norma Jean Countryman]

Bringing another charge against him. And I absolutely will get up there on that stand and tell my story again and put my fear and my pain in front of the entire world if that's what it takes to get him convicted of Carol's murder, of Jamie's, of Diane Gilchrist, all of them, I will be there for it. And the ones we don't know about, the ones he talked about in his timeline.

[Carolyn Osorio]

Next time on Stolen Voices of Dole Valley. New DNA evidence.

[Kimber]

The hairs we discovered, we have the sweepings from the van in 1974.

[Carolyn Osorio]

And Paul Holes, the investigator who was key in unmasking the Golden State Killer, joins the case.

[Kimber]

We know this guy is a serial killer, so whose hairs are? They may be one of these, you know, suspected victims or they could be a victim that we have no idea he killed.

[Carolyn Osorio]

If you have information about the case, please call the Clark County Sheriff's Office tip line at 564-397-2847. For more on Stolen Voices of Dole Valley, including pictures or to contact the show, find us on social at Media social, stolen voices pod or visit our website, stolenvoicespod.com and if you like the show, please give us a five star rating and a review. It really helps us get discovered. Of course. Tell your friends and be sure to follow us so you don't miss an episode. You can also support us by subscribing to Lemonada Premium, available right now in your podcast player, Lemonada Premium unlocks exclusive bonus episodes. Stolen Voices of Dole Valley is researched, written and hosted by me, Carolyn Osorio. Production, sound design and mixing by Trent Sell produced for Pie in the Sky Media by Brandon Morgan. My personal thanks to Ben Kiebrick for his thoughtful and inspired edits. Especially special thanks to Dave Colley, Amy Donaldson, Andrea Smarten, Ryan Meeks and Jenny Ament. Main musical score composed by Alison Layton Brown with Lemonada Media executive producers Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittleswax and for KSL Podcasts executive producer Cheryl Worsley. Stolen Voices of Dole Valley is a production of Pie in the Sky Media, KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media.