Julie Marie Bennett was a shy, sweet 15-year-old girl from a large and loving family in the Portland, Oregon, area. A talented swimmer, she also had a creative side, enjoying baking and writing poetry. Her life, full of promise, was brutally cut short on April 4, 1977, a day that would leave her family with unanswered questions for more than three decades.
That afternoon, Julie was with a friend at Johnson Creek Park when she met a man named Jeffrey Paul Cutlip.
She and Cutlip, who was then in his late 20s, walked to a nearby Corner Pantry Store to buy beer and cigarettes. When Julie didn't return to the park, her worried friend alerted Julie's father, and a search began. They found her purse in some bushes in the park, but there was no sign of the teenager. Two days later, her body was discovered in the waters of Johnson Creek.
For years, Julie’s death was a painful mystery. Investigators at the time considered the possibility of an accidental drowning, but locals in the neighborhood harbored suspicions about Cutlip, who subsequently moved away. The case eventually went cold, leaving a void in the lives of those who loved her. The Bennett family never gave up hope for answers, and in 2008, they asked the Portland Police Bureau's Cold Case Homicide Unit to take another look at the investigation.
The break in the case came unexpectedly in July 2012. A 63-year-old man named Jeffrey Paul Cutlip, then living in Brownsville, Texas, called the local police department to confess to multiple murders. His conscience, he told an officer, was bothering him, and he was "having a hard time dealing with what he'd done." Cutlip, who also used the name Jesse Andre D'Breeze, was a long-time predatory sex offender with a criminal history dating back to his teens.
Extradited to Oregon, Cutlip provided a chilling account of Julie’s last hours. He had lured her to his cabin, where he assaulted her for hours. When she threatened to go to the police, he took her back to the park, attempted to suffocate her, and then held her head underwater in Johnson Creek until she drowned. His confession finally confirmed what many had long suspected and brought an end to 35 years of uncertainty.
Cutlip also confessed to the 1975 murder of 44-year-old Marlene Claire Carlson and the 1993 murder of 33-year-old Nielene Loribell Doll. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and one count of aggravated murder for the three killings. The plea deal spared the victims' families a painful trial. At his sentencing, he was described by relatives of his victims as a "soul of pure evil." Julie's sister, Jan Terry, expressed the family's relief at the conclusion. "We're very thankful and grateful he pled guilty," she said. "It means he's going to pay for what he did. He won't be able to hurt anybody else and the family is very grateful and thankful."
Jeffrey Paul Cutlip was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died in hospice care at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Oregon, on March 29, 2026, at the age of 76. While his death closed the final chapter on his violent life, the memory of Julie Bennett endures as that of a cherished daughter and sister whose case, though cold for decades, was never forgotten.
