Who murdered 22 year old Eddie Lathan in 1986?
In the early morning hours of Valentine's Day, 1986, a grim discovery was made in the snow-covered landscape of a Portland neighborhood. A resident in the 4200 block of NE 37th Avenue spotted a figure lying face down near the curb at the northeast corner of Wilshire Park around 5:20 a.m. Responding police officers arrived to find the body of Eddie Lathan, a 22-year-old African-American male. It was immediately clear that this was not a peaceful death.
An autopsy would later confirm that Eddie Lathan had been shot to death. However, investigators quickly determined that the park was not the scene of the crime. The evidence suggested that Lathan had been killed elsewhere, and his body was subsequently brought to this quiet residential area and left by the roadside. The investigation into his life revealed that he was known to be a street-level drug dealer, primarily involved in selling marijuana. This detail provided a potential motive for his killing, but the specific circumstances remained elusive.
The night before his body was found, on February 13th, Eddie Lathan was last seen around midnight. He was spotted near the intersection of NE Grand and Alberta Street, a detail that provided a starting point for investigators trying to piece together his final hours. Despite this lead and information about his activities, the case grew cold. No suspects were ever publicly identified, and no arrests have been made in connection with his murder. His death remains an unsolved homicide, a lingering mystery from a winter's day in Portland.
