Account
Sep 14, 2012
Jan 08, 2024
Lisa
Briseno
55
28
64 inches
200 lbs
American Indian / Alaska Native
Female
In the late summer of 1997, a 28-year-old woman named Lisa Pearl Briseno vanished from Portland, Oregon, leaving behind a life and a loving family. On August 20, 1997, Lisa, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, was last seen. At the time of her disappearance, she was described as being 5'4" and weighing around 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was reportedly wearing a cream-colored blouse and blue flowered pants. Her sister officially reported her missing a week later, on August 27, 1997, after not hearing from her. The circumstances surrounding her last known moments are unsettling; she was seen leaving with her boyfriend in his white 1983 BMW. The investigation into Lisa's disappearance has been fraught with limited information and few leads. The vehicle she was last seen in was eventually recovered by law enforcement, but this recovery did not bring any clarity as to her whereabouts. Her boyfriend, the last known person to see her, was reportedly uncooperative with the police investigation. This lack of cooperation from a key individual has been a significant hurdle in the search for answers. For her family, the years have been filled with anguish and a sense of unresolved grief. Her younger sister, who was only 11 when Lisa went missing, remembers her as a role model who was a star student and had interned in Washington, D.C. The family held a service for Lisa, though her body has never been found, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs now consider her deceased. Lisa's case is a painful example of the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Her family feels that the initial investigation by the Portland Police Bureau was not as thorough as it could have been, leaving them to feel as though she became just another statistic. Despite the passage of time, efforts to find answers have not entirely ceased. In the years since her disappearance, DNA samples have been collected from her family members to be entered into national databases in the hope of a future match. The case remains open, a lingering wound for her loved ones and her community, who continue to hope for closure and justice for Lisa. The lack of available details has made the case particularly challenging, but the memory of a bright and beloved young woman continues to drive the search for truth.
Aug 20, 1997
Portland
Oregon
Multnomah County
97212
No
12321
Portland Police Bureau
Portland
Oregon
Multnomah County
97204
Heidi Helwig
Detective
1111 Southwest 2nd Avenue, Oregon
5038230400
Local
Law Enforcement
97-89040
1997-08-27
Portland Police Bureau
Black
Brown
Brown
05/23/2026
