PORTLAND, Oregon — On Tuesday October 13, 2015, Portland Police Bureau Homicide detectives learned that remains found in December 2014 in rural Marion County were that of wanted Portland fugitive Paul Winklebleck.
The Oregon State Police Crime Lab notified detectives after they received confirmation from the University of Texas Center for Human Identification.
The 43-year-old Winklebleck was wanted on felony warrants for kidnapping, criminal impersonation, assault, attempted rape and robbery. He was also wanted for child sex abuse and failing to register as a child sex offender.
On March 4, 2010, at approximately 11:45 p.m., two women left the Roseland Theatre in Downtown Portland when they were approached by Winklebleck who fabricated a story informing the them that he was working for the Portland Police Bureau as a “spotter” and was willing to assist them in getting home because they might be intoxicated.
Believing his story, the two women agreed to let Winklebleck drive them home in their car because he said he worked for the police and it was his job to get them home.
Once in their car Winklebleck displayed a knife, drove south on I-5 and took the Detroit Lake exit, stopping on a gravel road off the freeway. Once stopped the women were able to escape Winklebleck and run to a nearby home where a resident called 9-1-1.
Winklebleck fled the area and remained at large until hunters found his remains on December 11, 2014, near Cook Road Southeast, close to Turner, Oregon.
“America’s Most Wanted” television program featured a story on Winklebleck in 2012.
