Bridget Leanne Webster, a 31-year-old mother of two young children, was remembered by those who knew her as a woman with a life ahead of her, a life that was tragically cut short in the spring of 2023. Raised by her grandfather, Tom Freud, and his late wife from the age of four until her high school graduation, Bridget was known to frequent the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, including the communities of Oregon City and Milwaukie where she resided.
The last chapter of her life ended
in a remote, wooded area of Polk County. On the afternoon of April 30, 2023, at approximately 2:20 p.m., her remains were discovered along Harmony Road near Mill Creek. The Polk County Sheriff's Office immediately deemed her death suspicious and began an investigation, asking for the public's help for information about her recent whereabouts or anyone she might have been with.
Bridget’s death was not an isolated tragedy. Her discovery came amidst a growing sense of fear in the region, as the bodies of several other women had been found under similarly disturbing circumstances between February and May 2023. Initially, law enforcement agencies stated they had no reason to believe the cases were connected. However, as the investigation progressed, a chilling pattern began to emerge. The victims were all young women, their bodies left in rural, often secluded locations around the Portland area.
By July 2023, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office announced a significant development: the deaths of at least four women, including Bridget Webster, were linked, and they had identified a person of interest. That person was Jesse Lee Calhoun, a man with a lengthy criminal history. Investigators believe Calhoun killed Bridget on or around April 26, 2023, just four days before her body was found.
Jesse Lee Calhoun had been released from prison in 2021 after then-Governor Kate Brown commuted his sentence for burglary and car theft, partly for his work as an inmate firefighter. He was arrested again in June 2023 on parole violations, and his commutation was subsequently revoked. In May 2024, a grand jury indicted Calhoun on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of abuse of a corpse for the deaths of Bridget Webster, Charity Perry, and Joanna Speaks.
As the investigation continued, the case against Calhoun expanded. He was subsequently indicted for the murders of Kristin Smith, Ashley Real, and Elizabeth "Libby" Gibson, bringing the total number of alleged victims to six. Prosecutors have described the scope of the case as "massive," a series of distinct tragedies tied to one individual. For Bridget's grandfather, the news that the cases were linked and a suspect was named brought a sense of closure and hope for justice.
Jesse Lee Calhoun has pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder and abuse of a corpse and is currently awaiting trial. While the legal process moves forward, the families of the victims, including Bridget Webster's, are left to navigate a world without their loved ones. The community remembers Bridget not as a statistic in a horrific crime spree, but as a young mother whose future was stolen.
