On August 29, 1988 a granddaughter asked police to check on 69-year-old Frieda Wheatley and her husband at their North Portland home after not hearing from them. Officers found the house at 2612 N. Holman ransacked but without signs of forced entry; both Frieda and Robert Wheatley were discovered dead in the basement. An autopsy determined both had been strangled, and investigators believe the killings occurred on August 27, 1988.

Robbery appeared to be the primary motive. Missing items included a television, jewelry, an ATM card and a credit card, and the couple’s light green 1979 Buick Regal was taken and later found abandoned at Jantzen Beach Shopping Center. The stolen cards were used extensively around Northeast, North and Downtown Portland in the days after the murders. Investigators theorized the killers may have posed as prospective buyers, since a For Sale By Owner sign was in the Wheatleys’ yard. A person of interest was at one point identified but no arrests followed and the case remains unsolved.

Did anyone in North Portland at the time encounter people looking at the house, or see the Buick between August 27 and 31, 1988?