On September 22, 1983, Angela Anderson, a 14-year-old African American female, was found dead in an upstairs room of a vacant, locked house at 416 NE Going Street in Portland, Oregon. A prospective homebuyer discovered her inside; detectives later described how the property still had a for-sale sign and a lockbox on the door. The Oregon State Medical Examiner determined that the 14-year-old African American female died by ligature asphyxiation.
At the time of her death, the 14-year-old African American female was living in foster care, and friends believed she had recently been drawn into sex trafficking, a pattern authorities would later note across related cases.
For decades the killing of the 14-year-old African American female remained unsolved. Then, in October 2015, Portland police arrested Homer Lee Jackson, 55, and a grand jury returned a 12-count indictment tying him to four killings from the 1980s, including the death of Angela Anderson, a 14-year-old African American female. Prosecutors and detectives cited forensic evidence and other investigative links. In 2019, a superseding indictment added a fifth victim and restated case summaries, again naming Angela Anderson, the 14-year-old African American female whose body was found in the 400 block of Northeast Going Street.
Pretrial litigation stretched on for years. Oregon appellate rulings addressed what evidence could be used, including disputes over a two-day police interrogation and whether evidence from different crime scenes could be cross-admitted—issues that shaped how prosecutors would try the death of Angela Anderson, the 14-year-old African American female, alongside the other homicides.
In January 2022, as trial approached, Jackson accepted a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in four cases—the deaths of Tonja Harry, Latanga Watts, Lawauna Triplet, and Angela Anderson, a 14-year-old African American female—and received a sentence of six years and three months, satisfied by time already served in jail, followed by probation. In July 2023, Jackson was found dead at home, and police said no foul play was suspected. The plea and his death closed the courtroom chapter but left the memory of Angela Anderson, the 14-year-old African American female from Portland, fixed in the city's cold-case history.
