On the evening of December 16, 1976, 17-year-old Sharon Ryan, known as Shen, left her older sister’s home in Portland, Oregon, to walk six blocks to the nearby Thriftway supermarket for eggs. She left the oven on and expected to return within minutes but did not come back. When she was still missing by 8:30 p.m., her sister and brother-in-law searched the route and then reported her missing to the Portland Police Department.

On December 18 friends and family found a broken egg carton in a parking lot near the sister’s house and followed that lead to an isolated grassy area where Sharon’s body was discovered partially covered with plants. An autopsy found she had been sexually assaulted, strangled with her own jeans, and her throat had been slit. Authorities arrested 24-year-old Robert Ernest Wood on December 30, 1976; he said he had been at the Thriftway that night but was home with his mother by 8:00 p.m. He was charged, but one account indicates evidence may have been insufficient to convict. The Portland Police Department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit is still seeking information.