Police: Whitney Heichel's body found; suspect arrested

Police: Whitney Heichel's body found; suspect arrested

www.katu.com

GRESHAM, Ore. - Police announced Friday night in a somber news conference that they had found the body of missing 21-year-old Whitney Heichel on Larch Mountain. They also announced they had arrested Jonathan Daniel Holt for the aggravated murder of Heichel.

(visit the link for the full news article)

KPTV.COM

Well, they found the missing Oregon woman Whitney Heichel's body tonight on larch Mountain. I was really hoping for a good outcome, however this was not the case. She didn't show up to her work, and her husband and family became worried. Lots of evidence was discovered fairly rapidly, and the police did an excellent job finding the killer.

www.katu.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

These godless heathens need to be put to death asap.Thee souless bastards not only take the life of the victim but break the hearts of all that knew the now deceased.We put rabid animals to death for their proven violent act.We should have that many more reasons to rid the world of murderers.

reply to post by AgentX09

That smirk on his face in the photo says it all. He has some sort of sick, twisted sense of accomplishment from killing her. Sad day for the family. Edit.. I don't know if that is his mugshot, but if it is, no remorse.

I live near there on the other side of the river. Yes, it is sad and about as senseless as it comes...I hope he gets all he deserves. Not to make this political in any way, but it is this type of reason I carry concealed.

reply to post by Xtrozero
It is not political, more like common sense anymore. People are downright crazy, and you never know if you will be in a situation were you are forced to defend yourself. Good on you.

The last weird death associated with Larch Mountain was Kara Leonard, correct?
The Portland City Commissioner's daughter shot herself out there.....

Clark County sheriff's Sgt. Scott Schanaker said officers and firefighters responded Sunday afternoon to a report that Kara Leonard was shot in the head on a road near a field often used for target practice, about a mile east of Rawson Road on Larch Mountain in east Clark County.

reply to post by KhufuKeplerTriangle
Yeah, there was a shooting several years ago in a gravel pit up there, can't find the story now. Larch mountain is starting to gain a dreadful reputation. Here it is a story about the body of Evian Di Stefano, 20 found, and talk of the gravel pit shooting. Larch Mountain body found. There are references to several killings on that mountain in that story WTH? From the story "Larch Mountain has been a crime scene in the past. The bodies of two murder victims, a man and a woman, were found on a brushy hillside in 1999 and in 1996, two men were found shot and killed in the area in what was described as a teenagers' "thrill kill."

I have no particular knowledge of the case or of the crime scene, but it appears to me as if what you have here is a fairly simple, yet still unfortunate confluence of factors, which lead this location to be regularly used as a murder scene.

A quick study of Google maps, using its satellite function, shows us one obvious reason why a person who wishes someone dead, might use that location in which to make it happen. The place is pretty much out in the sticks, miles from anywhere, and if the colour of the satellite image is anything to go by, heavily wooded. That means that shots, screams, and other sounds of murder and mayhem will be absorbed either by sheer distance, or by the woodland. In either case, it would seem that the remoteness of the area would make it ideal for anyone burdened with nefarious purpose.

Another reason to use the location becomes apparant, again linked to the remoteness of the area, and that is that if ones target were to escape ones initial assault, one would have plenty of time in which to either hunt ones target through the woodland, or give it up as a bad job, and be away WELL before the intended victim has reached a telephone, populated area, or indeed an officer of the law.

And yet another reason, which also has to do with the remoteness of the location, is that a person could induce a victim to the site by various means, kill them, and leave the body pretty much anywhere, because being as remote and vast as the area is, even a fairly robust search for a body by law enforcement officials might easily yeild no result, and in the worst case (assuming the persona of the killer for a moment) increase the amount of time it would take to locate the body, which yet again increases the amount of time which the murderer has to make good his escape.

In some respects, bearing in mind these factors, I am suprised that an arrest was made at all. That is no reflection on my opinion of law enforcement in the area. I have no opinion on that, since I have no information on which to base an opinion. However, it seems to me that when one considers the advantages the offender gave himself in choosing so wisely the scene of the murder, it is somewhat strange that he considered it a good idea to remain in the state or city in which the crime was committed, although there is no accounting for the offenders mental state. One must assume that the fellow has some sort of sociopathic, or perhaps schizoid tendancies which prevented him from acting to maximise the advantages of time that he gave himself by choice of Larch Mountain as the final destination for the unfortunate lass he so callously destroyed.

The apparantly bizzare tendancy for certain locations to be used for particular crimes are in no way mythic, or indeed strange, when one considers the requirements of the people who commit the crimes involved. One often finds that organised criminal gangs use certain locations for body drops, due to very similar factors as those described above. Certain alleys and disused buildings are often used by addicts, to administer to themselves thier particular poison, or to deal in its trade amongst themselves. Joyriders will often frequent the same disused car lots, or wastelands in which to amuse themselves with thier stolen wheels. The geographical aspects of a murder scene, or a dumpsite, or indeed any kind of crime scene, can often be reduced from the realms of legend into logical meaning, if one simply views them from the position of the criminal. They fall from mythological to mundane in the blink of an eye, when one merely knows how to veiw them.

I live in Oregon and I never even heard of this story.
Sad, and does show the weakness of not watching ANY mainstream TV.

reply to post by TrueBrit

Some very bad, weird, strange things were happening in some of the woods back east, near where one of my sociology professors lived.

She and a friend had seen something very terrifying involving dead animals, dogs, and sexual behavior.
I don't what it is about the woods, but it brings out something in us. Maybe not in the case of Larch Mountain,
but some places do have bad energy, maybe from things in the past.

There were places the natives naturally avoided as well.
I know that the woods can be spooky to anyone, but as a kid who grew up rough, I am telling you,
there is a gradient in the darkness.

Sorry, should have replied instead of posting.

reply to post by KhufuKeplerTriangle


I am not unfamiliar with the affect that truely wild places have on ones mind. However, the chief amongst the reasons why a wild place is more prone to use for nefarious purpose , of EVERY kind, is its remoteness, its shelter from prying eyes. All other considerations are always secondary, aside from when ritual is concerned, and even then, when one examines the oldest tomes of ancient wisdom, regarding location choice for ritual and worship,it has as much to do with not being disturbed, as it does the spiritual element of a location.

No doubt those who decide to fornicate with beasts are just as unwilling to be discovered as those who require somewhere to dispose of a corpse, commit a serious sexual assault, or indeed a place to perform any deed which insults the hearts and minds of man or woman, as well thier physical flesh. The desire of the perverted mind, wether perverted by greed, by bloodlust, or indeed twisted sexual identity, to do what they wish to do means that they also require a place to do it, and knowing subconciously how wrong thier actions are, that place needs to protect them from veiw.

Again, even the apparantly mythological status of some crimes and crime scenes, can be reduced to a logical simplicity if observed correctly. The reputation a place gets, has more to do with people needing to believe that things happen for a reason that is outside of human grasp, that member of mankind who do great evil in such places are connected to a darkness that is sourced outside the human heart, perhaps seeping up through the ground in these ill hallowed places. The reality is that all the darkness man has done to itself, has come from within itself. Only by accepting and recognising that, can such barbarity itself be reduced to its logical factors, and only by this method can its perpetrators be bought to book, and further such acts prevented. Vigilance and logic, are the tools by which barbarity and madness can be bought to heel. There is no other way!