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You are here: Home / Help the Cops! / The 1963 murder of Mary Frances Reid

The 1963 murder of Mary Frances Reid

February 22, 2011 By Alice

Mary Frances Reid – Portland PD

Portland Police (OR) are looking for Johnny Lawrence, a 90-year-old black man, who is about 5-foot-7. Lawrence is suspected of killing Mary Frances Reid (22) on April 8, 1963.

Whether Lawrence is still alive or, when he died, is unknown. There are no details about the connection or relationship between Reid and Lawrence. There is no photograph of Lawrence either.

Portland authorities have not been able to find Johnny Lawrence. Lawrence was interviewed at the time of the crime in 1963 . He was then a 42 years old man. If alive, he’d be in his 90s.

Police do not have his date of birth other than presuming he was born in 1921. This means that scanning databases of the missing and the unidentified gets complicated. They suspect that Lawrence fled some time after the crime and might have returned to the St. Louis, Mo., area. That is where he lived before coming to Portland in the late 50s or early 60s.

Mary Frances Reid‘s body was found by her sister Joanne. An autopsy showed she died of homicidal violence. Reid’s murder is the Portland police’s oldest unsolved case. Despite that, Mary’s case is missing on their cold cases page.

If you have any information about the Reid case or about Johnny Lawrence – include his address, exact date of birth or, his death – please call the Portland Police Cold Case Homicide Unit, 1-503-823-9748 or 1-503-823-0867. More information here.

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Filed Under: Help the Cops! Tagged With: Mary Frances Reid, Oregon

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Dina Fort

Author Notes

On this website, I write about old, unsolved cases. Most are from the pre-DNA era and are in need of renewed media attention. I only do research and leave the active investigation of these cases to the professionals.

My posts are about homicides, missing and unidentified people, wrongful convictions, and forensics as related to these cases.

On book reviews: I only review select works of true crime, crime fiction, and historical fiction/mysteries. The stories have to fit my website's theme and research. It remains my prerogative to not review a book.

My database has over 325 cases listed by the victim’s last name. You will find a brief description there as well. The database will always be free to the public to use. You cannot buy ad space on my website, ever.

All writing suggestions that come in by email are added to my to-do list in the order in which they were received. Please be patient. My to-do list is very long but no case gets dropped and I will get back in touch.

Defrosting Cold Cases is NOT an organization. It is my brainchild.

If you have any questions about my website please check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, the about page, and the tabs in both menu bars. If you still cannot find the answer there, please contact me.

Thank you,

Alice de Sturler

Copyright

If you use my work, please add a link back. Let your readers know where you found your information. I do the same for you. Thank you!

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright: Please add a link back if you use my work. Let your readers know where you found your information. I do the same for you. If you need help with this, just contact me. Thank you, Alice de Sturler

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