Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 16:41:51 +0100
From: glaad@glaad.org (GLAAD)
Subject: LESBIAN ACTIVISTS MURDERED IN OREGON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Donna Red Wing
Field Director
(503) 224-5285



LESBIAN ACTIVISTS MURDERED IN OREGON

PORTLAND, OR -- December 8, 1995 -- Yesterday evening the police in Medford,
Oregon found the bodies of two lesbian activists who had been missing since
Monday, December 4th, according to local press reports. The bodies of Roxanna
Kay Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42, were found in the bed of a pick-up
truck owned by one of the women. The two women, who had been domestic
partners for 12 years, died by violent means, according to police
 authorities. Autopsies are scheduled for late Friday or early Saturday.

Although no suspects have been identified or arrested and no motive for the
crime has been determined, "the women's outspoken stance on gay rights has
inspired speculation that they might have fallen victim to a hate crime.
Police have at least one report that they had been threatened," according to
an article published in today's Oregonian. The police are also trying to
locate a man seen hanging around an apartment Ellis, a real estate agent, was
to show shortly before she disappeared Monday night.

"We don't know why Roxanna and Michelle were targeted. Was it because they
were lesbian activists, or because they were women," said Donna Red Wing,
founder of the Oregon Anti-Violence project in 1991 and currently Field
Director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, (GLAAD). "Was it a
random act of violence? We don't have those answers yet. What we do know is
that two extraordinary women were viciously attacked and murdered. As a
community, we must demonstrate our outrage, our fear and our grief by
intensifying our efforts toward making this a safer place for all of us," she
added.

The current Director of the Lesbian Community and the Anti-Violence Project
in Portland, La Verne Lewis said, "This heightens our fears. As a community
that has been the prime target of the fall-out from anti-gay initiatives.
 This reminds us of the arson murders of Hattie Mae Cohen and Brian Mock, who
were killed by neo-Nazi's during ballot measure 9 campaign and the hundreds
of hate crimes committed against us in that time."

GLAAD encourages anyone who has information  pertaining to the murders to
contact Sgt. Mike Moran of the Medford Police Department at (541) 770-4760.

GLAAD is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate, and inclusive
representation of individuals and events in all media as a means of combating
homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or
identity.



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Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
glaad@glaad.org
http://www.glaad.org

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD, is a national
organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of
individuals and events in the media as a means of combatting homophobia and
all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
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