Who killed Alma Jean Barra? Alma Jean Barra, a 28-year-old white woman from Portland, Oregon, known to friends as “Jeanie,” spent the late hours of March 23, 1972, at the Copper Penny Tavern. Near midnight she was seen leaving with an unidentified man, the two heading south on 92nd Avenue between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. She was small—5'1' and about 90 pounds—with shoulder-length red hair dyed black, dressed in a white sweater and turtleneck beneath a maroon vest and pants.
Three days later, on March 26, 1972, searchers found the 28-year-old's body in heavy brush near Willamette National Cemetery, about forty feet off Mount Scott Boulevard. The discovery site lay just beyond the roadway, screened by moss and brambles; the medical findings pointed to strangulation, and investigators noted no signs of sexual assault. Accounts preserve the detail that nylon stockings had been cinched around her neck and that the ground around her showed the marks of a struggle, as if she had fought back before being overpowered.
The evening's ordinary rhythms made the loss feel sharper. She had arranged care for her children and told the babysitter she would be home by 11:30, a promise that—when unmet—prompted the first call to police and set the search in motion. The image that remains is simple and human: a young mother stepping out for a few hours, a name shared easily as “Jeanie,” and then a sudden absence that drew officers to the brushy slope above the cemetery.
In the investigation that followed, the unknown man who left the tavern with the 28-year-old woman remained the only person of interest publicly described. No arrest has ever been announced. Official summaries still list the suspect as unknown, the date of murder as March 23, 1972, and the case as open and unsolved, with authorities continuing to request tips from anyone who might recognize the brief details of that late-night walk from the Copper Penny.
