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Copyright 1995 The Chronicle Publishing Co.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

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DECEMBER 15, 1995, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A19

LENGTH: 743 words

HEADLINE: Suspect in Oregon Killings Might Face New Charge

Visalia case could go to court first

BYLINE: Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer

BODY:

    Police and prosecutors in California have mounted an intense investigation in an attempt to file additional murder charges against Robert James Acremant, the 27- year-old computer programmer already accused in the deaths of two lesbian activists in Oregon.

Acremant, who is in custody on charges of murdering Roxanne Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42, in Medford, Ore., last week, is now the prime suspect in the disappearance of Scott George, a 23-year-old Visalia man who dropped from sight 10 weeks ago.

In a lengthy interview with detectives Wednesday morning, Acremant confessed killing Ellis and Abdill and also said he shot George four times because ''an urge came over him to want to kill,'' Acremant's father, Kenneth, told The Chronicle in an interview. The substance of Acremant's confession was confirmed yesterday by a law enforcement source who did not want to be identified.

Acremant is being held without bail in the San Joaquin County Jail, pending extradition to Oregon, where he could face the death penalty. It is possible, however, that if Acremant decides to fight extradition, a process that could take months, Tulare County authorities could complete their investigation in time to file murder charges against him in California, which would postpone a trial in Oregon indefinitely.

Law enforcement sources also played down the notion that the two lesbians were killed because of their sexual orientation, as well as the idea that the killer was trying to rob them.

''I can't totally rule out 'anti- gay' as a motive,'' said Jackson County (Oregon) prosecutor John Bondurant, ''but I think it is less likely. We haven't seen any evidence he (Acremant) was aware of their sexual orientation.'' Bondurant also said he was discounting a robbery motive because the women's ''money, wallets, jewelry and cell phones were left behind'' after the killer dumped their bound and gagged bodies in a pickup truck.

Instead, Bondurant said it appears that Acremant's motive might have been the simple urge to kill that Acremant described to his father in Wednesday's jailhouse meeting.

''He sounds like somebody who likes to kill,'' Bondurant said. ''Maybe he just wanted to kill somebody. It's hard to crawl inside somebody's head and figure out why they do what they do.''

In another development yesterday, Visalia police located Acremant's 1990 Thunderbird at a used car dealership in Fresno and were going over it in search of evidence that would show whether George was in the car.

''Acremant sold that car a week ago,'' Visalia Police Lieutenant John Gomes said, ''which is the same day he rented a U-haul van in Fresno.''

''That's the U-haul he had at the motel,'' Gomes said, referring to the place in Stockton where Acremant was arrested early Wednesday morning.

In Oregon, Bondurant was making plans yesterday to have the county grand jury indict Acremant on charges of murder early next week, a legal procedure that would allow prosecutors to bypass a time-consuming preliminary hearing and take Acremant directly to trial for murder. But that prospect began to dim as Tulare County officials speeded up their own, separate investigation.

''If we file a case against him before his extradition proceedings went through, then we'd keep him here,'' said Tulare County Assistant District Attorney Jim Hollman.

Meanwhile, more details emerged about Acremant's background. Officials at Park College in Parkville, Mo., said that between 1985 and 1989, Acremant attended classes at the college's facility at Holliman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Park College has extension course sites at nearly three dozen military bases around the United States. Students, most of them in the military, go to classes nights and weekends. Acremant graduated from Park in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in management.

After getting an MBA degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco in 1990, Acremant worked briefly for the Roadway Express trucking firm at its Adelanto (San Bernardino County) office as a computer programmer, according to the office manager.

But he became frustrated with the long hours of his job and left to develop a computer program he wanted to market, his father said. The program failed to sell and Acremant lost money, a factor that led to a breakup with his girlfriend and an eventual downward spiral into depression, his father added.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO,Robert Acremant is the prime suspect in a California missing- person case, , BY CLIFFORD OTO, STOCKTON RECORD

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 15, 1995

 

 

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Copyright 1995 The Times Mirror Company  

Los Angeles Times

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December 14, 1995, Thursday, Home Edition

SECTION: Part A; Page 10; National Desk

LENGTH: 132 words

HEADLINE: NATION IN BRIEF;

OREGON;

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN LESBIAN SLAYINGS

BYLINE: From Times Staff and Wire Reports

BODY:

   A SWAT team converged on a motel in Stockton, Calif., and arrested a 27-year-old man in the slaying of two lesbian activists who were found bound, gagged and shot in the back of their pickup last week in Medford, Ore. Robert James Acremant was jailed pending extradition on charges of murdering Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill. A phone tip led police to a Motel 6, where Acremant had registered under his own name and had parked a moving van, said Stockton Police Sgt. Billy Wykert. Acremant surrendered without incident. John Bondurant, chief deputy district attorney in Jackson County, Ore., said authorities weren't ruling out any possible motive for the slayings. But "nothing in the evidence we have indicates Mr. Acremant knew either of these women were lesbians," he said.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

 

 

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Copyright 1995 The Chronicle Publishing Co.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

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DECEMBER 14, 1995, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 751 words

HEADLINE: Suspect Arrested In Lesbian Slayings

Stockton man says his son confessed

BYLINE: Henry K. Lee, Rick DelVecchio, Michael Taylor, Ch

BODY:

    A 27-year-old man suspected of killing two lesbian activists in Oregon was arrested yesterday at a Stockton motel by a police SWAT team acting on an anonymous tip.

Robert James Acremant, who was being held at San Joaquin County Jail, confessed to the killings of Roxanne Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42, his father told The Chronicle last night.

The bodies of the women were found bound and gagged in the back of their pickup truck last Thurs- day in Medford, Ore. The women, who had been missing for three days, were each shot twice in the head.

Kenneth Acremant of Stockton also said his son told him that he fatally shot his friend Scott George, a 23-year-old Visalia man who was reported missing in October.

The elder Acremant said his son detailed his police confessions during a two-hour jailhouse visit between father and son yesterday. Police refused to tell reporters whether Robert Acremant confessed to the three slayings, but Kenneth Acremant said police investigators told him his son admitted to the killings.

Gay rights advocates had feared that Ellis and Abdill were victims of hate crimes -- killed because of their sexual orientation and their fierce opposition to anti- gay rights measures in Oregon. But Kenneth Acremant, 49, said his son killed the women during a botched robbery and that he killed George in a fit of anger.

''My son over the years has never indicated any dislike for gays and lesbians,'' Kenneth Acremant said. ''He said his motive was to get money, and when something went wrong, he basically panicked and shot them.''

Authorities learned of Acremant's whereabouts early yesterday from a tipster who said the suspect was in the Stockton area and driving a U-Haul moving van. A police SWAT team arrested him without incident at a Motel 6 in north Stockton.

John Bondurant, chief deputy district attorney in Jackson County, Ore., said authorities were not ruling out any possible motives. However, he said, ''Nothing in the evidence we have indicates Mr. Acremant knew either of these women were lesbians.''

Robert Acremant knew Ellis through a property management agency the women ran, investigators said. He rented an apartment four blocks from the scene of the killings.

The younger Acremant, who earned a master's in business administration from San Francisco's Golden Gate University in 1990, moved to Medford last month with his mother after living for two months in Visalia.

On Tuesday, according to Tulare County sheriff's investigators, he forced himself into the home of a 20-year-old female acquaintance near Visalia.

He handcuffed and pistol-whipped the woman, demanding money. She escaped without serious harm when a friend showed up for a lunch date, police said.

Acremant and the woman apparently talked for about an hour. He ''needed money to get out of town,'' said Visalia police Lieutenant John Gomes.

In recent months, Visalia police repeatedly questioned Acremant in the October 3 disappearance of his friend George, who was last seen having drinks with Acremant at a restaurant. Acremant has told police that he dropped George off at George's home.

Kenneth Acremant said his son told him that he shot George four times while the two men were driving in his car around September 30. ''He said they were out drinking and an urge came over him to want to kill,'' he said. ''He couldn't stop it -- it was just something he wanted to do.''

The father said the son left a trucking job to market a computer program. After having problems selling the program, he ran out of money, which led to his girlfriend breaking up with him, the father said. ''There's been no indication in his life that he had any tendencies of this nature,'' said the elder Acremant, adding he was in ''disbelief'' over his son's alleged crimes.

 

 

Cherie Garland, who became close friends with Ellis and Abdill through a gay support group, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the arrest is a relief. ''It's a little bit of an ease of tension,'' she said, ''but a dread of what we are next to learn.''

Robert Bray, a field organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said earlier that he and other gay-rights leaders remain concerned that the killings were motivated by bigotry. ''Given the circumstances of the case and the visibility of the two lesbian activists . . . it makes me very suspicious and concerned about the actual motive,'' Bray said.

 

 

GRAPHIC: PHOTO,Robert James Acremant was booked on murder charges

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 15, 1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Copyright 1995 The Chronicle Publishing Co.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

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DECEMBER 11, 1995, MONDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 1108 words

HEADLINE: An End to Innocence

Killing of lesbians rattles Oregon town

BYLINE: David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer

DATELINE: Medford, Ore.

BODY:

    The brutal killings of two lesbian activists, who were eulogized yesterday afternoon in an emotional church service, have been another harsh blow to this old-time mill town close to the California border.

To local gays and lesbians, the slaying last week of Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill is a bitter reminder that not everybody welcomes their presence. To other residents, the killings are one more sign that Medford's small- town innocence is gone for good.

In a score of interviews along Main Street, in shops and a local logger bar, longtime residents portrayed a city struggling to cope with forces outside its control: an influx of newcomers, skyrocketing real estate prices, the loss of thousands of timber jobs, and malls blooming where pear orchards once stood.

They spoke of a marked increase in violence and gang warfare, of drugs readily available in the schools. And many of them blame ex-Californians, and other outsiders, for the changes.

At Mutt's Tavern on McAndrews Street, bathroom graffiti read ''Go back to California, Yuppie'' and ''Don't Californiate Oregon.''

''It used to be you could leave your guns in your rig unlocked, and nobody would touch it,'' said Mike Henagin, an equipment operator at a local mill who was nursing a beer at the bar. ''Now you can't go down the block without getting something ripped off. The town's getting bigger, and everything comes with that. So these murders don't surprise me.''

Outside Evangel Book and Bible House, a group of teenagers and young adults said that they were not yet convinced that the women were killed because of their sexual orientation. Gangs spreading drugs and random violence have moved up from California, they said. Mike, 20, said that many kids now call the town ''Methford,'' since drugs like methamphetamines are more available than ever.

''I don't recognize people, and I don't recognize their attitudes,'' added his friend Keitha, 17. ''For people who have grown up here, it's a shock.''

BLAMING CALIFORNIA

Amy Crider, a bartender at Mutt's Tavern, said that many locals even think that Californians are responsible for the greater visibility of homosexuals in the community.

''A lot of people are not too happy about this new gay rights,'' she said while serving pitchers of Budweiser. ''I've heard them say that they think the gays are coming from San Francisco. They're wrong, but that's what they think.''

Ellis and Abdill were from Colorado, not California. Ironically, they moved to southern Oregon five years ago in search of a place where they could live more openly as lesbians.

Medford police continued their investigation yesterday but did not release any new information. Police say they are considering the possibility that the killings were related to the two women's gay rights activism but are investigating other possibilities as well.

Police are looking to question a gray-haired man wearing wire rim glasses and driving a blue sedan with California plates.

GAY COMMUNITY STUNNED

The killings have stunned the gay and lesbian community in Medford and nearby Ashland, a more upscale and tourist-oriented town. More than 250 people -- many wearing lavender armbands and buttons with the slogan ''Medford . . . Hate-Free Zone'' -- attended a moving service yesterday at the Medford Congregational Church.

As listeners in the overflowing pews wept and daubed their eyes, friends and colleagues of the women extolled their courage, warmth and generosity. ''I am a scientist,'' said speaker Mark MacDougall, a gay man. ''I believe in what I can see. For that reason, I believe in angels. I did see them -- their names were Roxanne and Michelle.''

Lorri Ellis, Roxanne's daughter, read a note of gentle guidance and parental praise that her mother had given her. ''It's not an easy journey to adulthood, but you arrived with flying colors,'' she read, her head bowed and her voice quavering.

Brenda Brown, a board member of the Lambda Community Center Association, said she viewed the women as role models who had touched the lives of many beyond the gay and lesbian community.

Brown added that she had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from other townspeople, local businesses and the police.

''The love and compassion that I felt (from them) makes me proud to live here,'' she said, drawing sustained applause.

But few in the audience yesterday could forget that for Medford, as for the rest of Oregon, homosexuality has been a contentious issue for years.

In both 1992 and 1994, Oregon voters rejected statewide ballot measures that would have barred the state and any of its cities from enacting gay rights laws. In Jackson County, where both Medford and Ashland are located, a majority voted in favor of the 1994 measure.

The Oregon Citizens Alliance, the religious right group that sponsored both measures, bolstered support for its efforts by tapping into Oregonians anti-California feeling and their concern about outsiders bringing unwanted change.

Flyers distributed by the organization -- whose founder Lon Mabon is from Southern California -- described local efforts to introduce counseling programs for gay teenagers as inspired by a similar program in Los Angeles. The group's literature also claimed that acceptance of gay rights has turned San Francisco into ''a haven for sexual perversions of every kind, including sadomasochism and pedophilia.''

Emotions around the issue of change in general and homosexuality in particular remain heated. Many Medford residents only need to look a dozen miles down the freeway to the liberal bastion of Ashland to view what they fear is the future.

Nationally known for its Shakespeare Festival, Ashland became a popular tourist spot during the 1980s. In the past 10 years, said Rich Havenan, a real estate agent with Ashland Homes, the price of the average home has jumped from about $ 75,000 to about $ 160,000. Close to half of his clients are from California, and the boom has spread to other nearby towns.

''Old-timers can't believe what is happening with the prices,'' he said. ''Local people don't go downtown anymore. It's all shops and real estate offices and boutiques.''

Tom Mockry, a former mill worker who lives just outside of Medford, said he stays away from Ashland as much as possible and plans to leave Medford if the pace of chance continues.

''I think of Ashland as kind of a little San Francisco,'' he said. ''They've got their theater, they've got gay bars, and lots of Californians. I think we ought to give the city to California.''

GRAPHIC: PHOTO,Dan Abdill, brother of slain Michelle Abdill, and Lorri Ellis, daughter of slain Roxanne Ellis, and her daughter, Hannah, 3, grieved at the memorial services in Medford , BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 11, 1995

 

 

 

 

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Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company  

The New York Times

December 10, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section 1;  Page 35;  Column 1;  National Desk 

LENGTH: 116 words

HEADLINE: Gay Rights Leaders Missing, Found Dead

BYLINE:  AP 

DATELINE: MEDFORD, Ore., Dec. 9

BODY:

   Two gay rights advocates who had been missing for four days have been found dead in the back of a pickup truck.

The bodies of Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill were found in Ms. Ellis's canopied pickup on Thursday after a cable TV worker reported the vehicle to the authorities. Residents had complained of a foul odor around the truck.

Sgt. Mike Moran said the women had died violently, though details were withheld until autopsies could be completed.

Ms. Ellis, 54, and Ms. Abdill, 42, disappeared on Monday after Ms. Ellis was scheduled to show a rental duplex. Ms. Abdill went to the duplex to help Ms. Ellis jump start her car. No one reported seeing either woman after that.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 10, 1995

 

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Copyright 1995 Journal Sentinel Inc.  

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

December 9, 1995 Saturday State

SECTION: News Pg. 6

LENGTH: 145 words

HEADLINE: Gay couple's slayings shock community

SOURCE: Journal Sentinel wire reports

DATELINE: Ashland, Ore.

BODY:

   The murder of a lesbian couple who fought an anti-gay rights bill last year has sent a shiver of fear and pain through their friends in gay and AIDS support groups.

Police discovered the bodies of Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill in the back of their pickup truck Thursday in neighboring Medford, and authorities were investigating whether their deaths were linked to their political activism.

"The gay community is rightly very concerned right now," said police Sgt. Mike Moran. "But we have no real information pursuing the hate crime angle. We are also considering the possibility this could be a personal vendetta, a business grievance, and the less likely scenario of random crime."

Ellis, 54, and Abdill, 42, were domestic partners as well as partners in a property management business in Medford.

Both died violently, but police withheld details.

GRAPHIC: Photo 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Roxanne Ellis, 54, (left) and Michelle Abdill, 42, were found

slain in Medford, Ore., where they were gay rights activists.

LOAD-DATE: December 11, 1995

 

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Copyright 1995 Journal Sentinel Inc.  

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

December 9, 1995 Saturday State

SECTION: News Pg. 6

LENGTH: 146 words

HEADLINE: Gay couple's slayings shock community

SOURCE: Journal Sentinel wire reports

DATELINE: Ashland, Ore.

BODY:

   The murder of a lesbian couple who fought an anti-gay rights bill last year has sent a shiver of fear and pain through their friends in gay and AIDS support groups.

Police discovered the bodies of Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill in the back of their pickup truck Thursday in neighboring Medford, and authorities were investigating whether their deaths were linked to their political activism.

"The gay community is rightly very concerned right now," said police Sgt. Mike Moran. "But we have no real information pursuing the hate crime angle. We are also considering the possibility this could be a personal vendetta, a business grievance, and the less likely scenario of random crime."

Ellis, 54, and Abdill, 42, were domestic partners as well as partners in a property management business in Medford.

Both died violently, but police withheld details.

GRAPHIC: Photo 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Roxanne Ellis, 54, (left) and Michelle Abdill, 42, were found

slain in Medford, Ore., where they were gay rights activists.

LOAD-DATE: December 11, 1995

 

 

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Copyright 1995 The Chronicle Publishing Co.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

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DECEMBER 9, 1995, SATURDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 650 words

HEADLINE: Oregon Gays Frightened After Killings

Slain lesbians were known for activism

BYLINE: David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer

BODY:

    The savage slaying of two lesbian activists in southern Oregon has outraged and terrified the state's gay community.

The two women, Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, were well known in the Medford-Ashland area for their political activity on behalf of gay rights. Their bodies were found Thursday night in the back of their pickup truck, and police said they were investigating the killings as a possible hate crime.

''The gay community is rightly very concerned right now,'' said Medford police Sergeant Mike Moran. ''But we have no real information pursuing the hate crime angle. We are also considering the possibility this could be a personal vendetta, a business grievance, and the less likely scenario of random crime.''

In both 1992 and 1994, Oregon voted on ballot measures that would have barred the state or cities from enacting gay rights laws. Although both measures failed, the contentious issue sharply divided the state and spawned a wave of anti-gay violence, according to gay leaders.

Wendy Byrne, a lesbian from San Rafael who moved to the Ashland-Medford area five years ago, said ''there's not a doubt in my mind'' that the women were murdered because of their sexual orientation. Everyone she knows believes the same, she said.

''I'm angry and frustrated because I don't know if I can trust the police to protect us,'' she said.

Byrne, a physical therapist who lives in Medford with her lover, said she bought a handgun yesterday, although she will not be able to pick it up until background checks are completed. ''I've wanted to buy one for awhile, and this seemed like a good time to do it,'' she said.

CLOSELY WATCHED CASE

Robert Bray, a San Francisco- based field organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said the national gay community was closely monitoring developments in the case.

''In communities where lesbians and gays have come out vigorously to fight anti-gay initiatives, including Oregon, Colorado and most recently in Maine, we have seen a violent backlash against gay activists,'' said Bray.

Ellis, 54, and Abdill, 42, of Ashland, were domestic partners as well as partners in a property management firm in Medford.

On Monday, Ellis had an appointment to show a duplex apartment. She phoned her daughter, Lorri Ellis, several hours after the appointment to say she was going shopping. An hour later, she phoned Abdill and asked her to come to the duplex to help jump start her pickup truck because the battery had died.

TRUCK DROVE AWAY

Monday evening, Lorri Ellis drove by the duplex to check on the couple and told police she saw her mother's pickup drive away. She tried to flag it down, but the driver eluded her.

Thursday afternoon, a cable television installer spotted Roxanne Ellis' truck in the parking lot of an apartment complex across town. He had memorized the license plate when he went home for lunch and watched the news on TV.

In the bed of the pickup, underneath a canopy, police found the bodies of the two women.

Both died violently, Moran said. Police withheld further details pending an autopsy.

MAN SOUGHT FOR QUESTIONING

Police are looking for a gray- haired man with wire-rimmed classes seen at the duplex with a blue car with California plates. Police said they wanted to talk to him and did not yet consider him a suspect.

Ashland is known as a safe oasis for people who are different in a region not otherwise known for its tolerance. It is home to the nation's biggest regional theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as Southern Oregon State College, and is a popular tourist destination for people from the San Francisco Bay Area.

But the rest of Jackson County, including Medford, is much more conservative. Last year's ballot measure to curtail gay rights won a majority in the county, where the vote was 34,467 to 30,065.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, MAP,Partners Roxanne Ellis (left) and Michelle Abdill were active in gay and lesbian politics , BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 9, 1995

 

 

 

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