Scott William Cox

Serial Killer

Scott William Cox: Convicted Murderer and Suspected Serial Killer

Overview

Scott William Cox was an Oregon long-haul truck driver who was convicted of murdering two women in Portland and investigated as a possible serial killer in numerous other unsolved cases across the western United States. Born on November 3, 1963, Cox lived in Newberg, Oregon, and spent years working as a truck driver, a profession that allowed him to travel extensively and made reconstructing his movements an important part of later homicide investigations. Authorities ultimately connected him to the murders of Rheena Ann Brunson and Victoria Rhone, and on September 15, 1993, he was convicted of two counts of murder after entering no-contest pleas. Cox became particularly troubling to investigators because his movements extended far beyond Portland. Police agencies compared his trucking routes with unsolved murders and disappearances in Oregon, Washington, Utah and other western states. At various points investigators examined whether he could have been responsible for roughly 20 additional killings. Those suspicions never produced additional murder convictions, however, and Cox's confirmed criminal responsibility remained limited to the murders of Brunson and Rhone. For that reason, he is most accurately described as a convicted double murderer and suspected serial killer.

The Murder of Rheena Ann Brunson

On November 24, 1990, 34-year-old Rheena Ann Brunson was found critically injured outside a Safeway store in northeast Portland, Oregon. Brunson had been badly assaulted. She had been restrained with handcuffs, beaten, cut in several places and stabbed in the heart. Although she was still alive when she was discovered, her injuries were fatal and she died shortly afterward. The public location where Brunson was found suggested that she had either escaped from her attacker or had been abandoned while still alive. Investigators were left with a violent homicide involving a woman who had apparently been restrained before receiving the fatal stab wound. Her death would later become important when authorities began comparing it with another Portland killing and with a brutal attack on a woman in Washington. ...

Confirmed Victims: (2)

Rheena Ann Brunson Age: (34), Date of Death: 1990-11-24

Suspected Victims:

Tia Hicks Age: (20), Date of Death: 1991-04-22

Hazel Gelnett Age: (67), Date of Death: 1988-05-08

Vicky Lynn Perkins Age: (19), Date of Death: 1990-05-09

Stephanie Douglas Age: (25), Date of Death: 1990-11-27

Scott William Cox - Wikipedia