Do you know who murdered Althene Hines in 1989? In the late summer of 1989, the community of Portland, Oregon, was confronted with a grim discovery that would become an enduring mystery. On Sunday, August 20th, the body of a 43-year-old African-American woman, Althene Hines, was found. Her remains were located in the bed of a 1972 Ford Courier pickup truck that appeared to have been abandoned on NE Ivy Street, just to the east of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard.
The condition of her body suggested that she had been deceased for some time.
An autopsy would later reveal the violent end to Ms. Hines' life; she had died as a result of blunt force trauma. Investigators were able to piece together a timeline that indicated she was last seen alive on Thursday, August 17, 1989, a full three days before her body was discovered. This led authorities to believe that the location where she was found was not the place where she was murdered. The prevailing theory is that she was killed at an unknown location and her body was subsequently transported in a vehicle to the pickup truck where she was ultimately found.
Despite the passage of time, the case of Althene Hines' murder remains unsolved, a cold case in the files of the Portland Police Bureau. No suspects have ever been publicly identified, and no arrests have been made in connection with her death. The investigation has been unable to definitively pinpoint where she was killed or who was responsible for her death. Law enforcement has periodically sought the public's assistance, hoping that someone with information might come forward to provide the missing pieces of a puzzle that has remained incomplete for decades. The offer of a cash reward for information leading to an arrest underscores the ongoing effort to bring a resolution to this tragic case.
