Geoffrey Brown

On February 22, 1975, five-year-old Geoffrey Lyman Brown and his seven-year-old sister, Leslie, left their father’s home for a visit with their mother. It was the last time anyone would see the children alive. For decades, their shocking deaths have haunted their family, the community of Estacada, Oregon, and the investigators who have never given up the search for answers and for the children’s missing mother, who remains the sole suspect in their murders.

Following their parents' divorce, Geoffrey and his sister were living with their father, Lyman Brown. Their mother, 26-year-old Lynne Brown, picked them up for what was supposed to be a brief visitation. When the children didn't return and Lynne could not be found, a desperate search began. The agonizing wait for news ended three weeks later, on March 12, 1975, at 4:45 p.m. Search teams discovered the bodies of Geoffrey and Leslie in a small clearing in Milo McIver State Park, not far from the banks of the Clackamas River. They were found lying together on a coat.

The scene was one of unimaginable horror. Both children had been shot multiple times. An autopsy would later confirm that each child had been shot three times, including twice in the head. The brutal nature of the crime sent shockwaves through the quiet Oregon community. Investigators from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office immediately began processing the scene and searching for the children's mother. They soon found her car abandoned nearby. Inside the vehicle were her purse, her identification, and $300 in cash. There was also a receipt for a handgun, but Lynne Brown herself was gone.

The investigation focused entirely on Lynne, who had a history of mental illness. Detectives theorized that after killing her children, she may have been overcome with grief and walked into the cold, swift waters of the nearby Clackamas River. "It was close to the Clackamas River in a pretty rough area, so she would've disappeared pretty fast," Clackamas County Detective Kimberly Timeus later noted. Despite extensive searches of the river and the surrounding parkland, no trace of Lynne was ever found. Without a body, a murder weapon, or any further evidence of her whereabouts, she simply vanished.

Years turned into decades, but the case never went cold. Investigators with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office continued to follow up on leads and review the evidence. Nearly 20 years after the murders, detectives presented the case to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against Lynne Brown for murder. An active arrest warrant for her has been in effect ever since. To aid in potential identification should her remains ever be discovered, investigators collected DNA from Lynne's mother to enter into law enforcement databases.

The profound loss has remained with the children's father throughout his life. In a 2016 interview, Lyman Brown described the pain as "indescribable." He recalled the year after his children's disappearance as a time when "everyone was on pins and needles... Maybe she'd show up, but who knows." The lack of resolution has left the family in a state of perpetual uncertainty. "The family deserves that," Detective Timeus said in a February 2025 interview. "They went all these years not knowing exactly what happened to those poor children."

As of February 2025, the murders of Geoffrey and Leslie Brown remain an active and open cold case with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. Detectives still receive occasional tips, a testament to a community that has not forgotten the two young lives so violently cut short. Lynne Brown, if she is still alive, would be in her late 70s. Whether she took her own life in the river that day or managed to escape and start a new life elsewhere remains the central, unanswered question in this tragic and enduring mystery.

Anyone with information regarding the murders of Geoffrey and Leslie Brown or the whereabouts of Lynne Brown is urged to contact the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 503-723-4949 or submit a tip through their online email form.