I was a bit startled when looking at the new police sketch of the suspect, realized from the memory of Mary Kristene Chapa. Kristene has been making an amazing recovery, after she was shot in the head at Violet Andrews Park, late at night on June 22nd. Her partner, Mollie Judith Olgin, died in the vicious attack, that many suspect was a hate crime, specifically targeting two young women in a same-sex relationship. That would include me, as one who believes it was a hate crime.
My problem is, I’m not quite seeing major similarities between the two sketches. Well, some similarities, such as the suspect is thin and has whiskers. The later sketch, makes him look more Anglo than the first one, which could possibly be interpreted as Hispanic. This makes me think that Kristene wanted to clarify this, since she could positively identify the shooter as a thin white man.
This gives credence to the second sketch as possibly a more accurate one. And in knowing that Mary Kristene is feeling better (as of mid-July when the original sketch was modified), we can feel more confident that the later one comes closer to capturing the visage of a one of the most cold-blooded killers I have ever encountered. I’m a crime reporter, so I see this stuff everyday, but this one gets under my skin a good deal more.
When reading Mollie’s biographical portrait, provided in fragments from various news sources, I’ve felt particularly empathetic towards her. Mollie seems to have had those rare qualities of leadership, and I believe, as she developed, would have emerged as a true leader in her community. Okay, so I just like her, but I believe great things were in store for her. Yet, this compounds the tragedy of what could have been, against what we know did, in fact, occur.
So, this is just to underscore the obvious, we need to catch the man in the two police portraits and quick! But we have to connect the two sketches together, or maybe we’ll have to simply completely scratch the first one. This adds an element of confusion, you might agree. The hair between the two is completely different. In the first, it stands up straight. In the second one it’s more wavy and moves to the side, sort of like James Dean.
The eyes are coal-black and burning with hate in the first. The second shows us a much more benevolent looking suspect, who doesn’t appear to hold quite as much wrath within himself. We’ve always been taught, our first impressions are usually our best, or most accurate of impressions. This would be the case we can make for number one. I suspect the level of hate in his eyes is the way it really went down. Our James Dean in number two doesn’t look mean enough to be the killer!
Perhaps it’s just a Wive’s Tale that first impressions are better? We should think this over. It’s important, if we hope to catch Mollie Olgin’s assassin. I did receive a curious email from a man, who’s developed a suspect. He has a blog on Flickr which has the last sketch next to this crazy man’s photo, who’s been spewing some hate babble on a blog he keeps. I’ll link it for you, so you can probe the likelihood of him being our man.
I’m sure the Portland Police are looking into this man. As Kristene recovers more, maybe yet a third sketch is called for. A full body drawing would be better, I am thinking. Does the second sketch require some modifications? I sense this is so. Are there aspects to the first that still hold up? My opinion, is in the affirmative. Is there much mutuality between the two? There are more differences than similarities, actually. Are we getting closer, or further away?
