Do you know who murdered 17 year old Sharon Ryan? On a chilly evening in Portland, Oregon, just days before Christmas in 1976, 17-year-old Sharon Ryan, a Caucasian female known to her friends and family as Shen, was in high spirits, baking holiday cookies at her older sister's home. Realizing she was short on eggs, Sharon told her sister she was making a quick walk to the nearby Thriftway supermarket, just six blocks away, and would be right back. Shortly before 8:00 p.m.
on December 16th, she left the house with a couple of dollars, leaving the oven on, fully intending to return in minutes to finish her baking. She never made it back. When she hadn't returned by 8:30 p.m., her sister and brother-in-law grew worried and began to search the route to the store, but found no trace of the reliable and talented high school junior. After their search proved fruitless, they contacted the Portland Police Department and reported her missing.
The search for Sharon ended in heartbreak two days later, on Saturday, December 18, 1976. Friends and family, continuing their desperate search of the neighborhood, discovered a broken egg carton in a parking lot not far from her sister's home. This grim discovery led them to an isolated, grassy area nearby, where they found Sharon's body, partially covered with plants. An autopsy would later reveal the horrifying details of her death. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with her own jeans. Her throat had also been slit.
The investigation into the brutal murder led police to a suspect less than two weeks later. On December 30, 1976, authorities arrested 24-year-old Robert Ernest Wood, a janitor who lived with his mother not far from the crime scene. Wood admitted to being at the same Thriftway market on the night of the murder around 7:30 p.m., but he insisted that he was at home watching television with his mother by 8:00 p.m., before Sharon was believed to have been killed. Despite his claims of innocence, he was charged with her murder.
Although an arrest was made, justice for Sharon Ryan has remained elusive. One account suggests that there was ultimately insufficient evidence to convict Robert Wood. Decades have passed, and the case has grown cold, but it has never been forgotten. The Portland Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit continues to seek information from the public, holding out hope that one day the person responsible for ending the life of the promising young dancer will be brought to justice.
