About FlashAlert on Twitter:
FlashAlert utilizes the free service Twitter to distribute emergency text messages. While you are welcome to register your cell phone text message address directly into the FlashAlert system, we recommend that you simply "follow" the FlashAlert account for Washington Co. Sheriff's Office by clicking on the link below and logging in to (or creating) your free Twitter account. Twitter sends messages out exceptionally fast thanks to arrangements they have made with the cell phone companies.
Click here to add Washington Co. Sheriff's Office to your Twitter account or create one.
@WCSOOregon
On Thursday, July 25, 2024, at 03:49 a.m., Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a vehicle on fire in the 20600 block of SW Rockport Lane in Beaverton to assist Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.
The caller dialed 911 to report a vehicle on fire in the driveway of a home and a person in all-black clothing running from the scene. The engulfed vehicle was close to the house and threatened to catch the residence on fire. The home was unoccupied at the time.
Deputies searched the area, but the suspect was not located.
If you have any information about this incident, Investigators would like to hear from you. Contact non-emergency dispatch at 503-629-0111 and reference case 50-24-10551.
On Sunday, July 14, 2024, at 5:43 p.m., Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a suspected drowning at Jurgens Park in Tualatin. Deputies received a call about a man who went underwater while swimming with his child. Community members on the river helped the child to safety and began searching for the man but could not find him.
Deputies responded along with officers from the Tigard and Tualatin Police Departments, American Medical Rescue, Lake Oswego Fire Department, and Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue. Responders recovered the body of 42-year-old Jeremiah Joshua Baldwin of Tualatin. The initial investigation indicates that Baldwin was not wearing a life jacket and struggled to stay above water while helping his child stay afloat.
Baldwin’s family has been notified of his death, and the Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating. The Sheriff’s Office is thankful for the community members who assisted in getting the child to safety.
Washington County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Detectives are seeking information regarding the 1996 disappearance of a man known as Paul Evers St. Claire and the unsolved murder of David Larry Stroh. Investigators believe the two cases are connected.
At the end of April 1996, Paul St. Claire, age 52, was reported missing under suspicious circumstances. Neither Paul nor the car he was last seen in have ever been found. The investigation uncovered that Paul was born Lloyd Adam Buzzard and had lived under the assumed name of Paul Evers St. Claire since the early 1970s. As Paul St. Claire, he moved to Oregon and established himself in the Portland Metro area. Paul was involved in various businesses and became affiliated with a man known as Frank Tidwell.
Investigators determined that Frank Tidwell was one of many aliases used by Robert Stroh. Robert Stroh was reputed to be a violent and dangerous person with an extensive criminal past. It is believed Robert was a silent partner in multiple businesses throughout the Portland area and outside of Oregon.
Robert had a female relative who lived with him, with whom Paul became close friends. Investigators believe this friendship may have contributed to Paul’s disappearance. Reportedly, Robert Stroh was the last person to see Paul.
About a week after Paul was reported missing, Washington County Sheriff’s Office detectives began investigating the sexual assault of a teenage girl. The suspect was a man known as Marshall Bond. Detectives determined that Marshall Bond was one of many aliases used by David Stroh, a younger brother of Robert Stroh. Like his brother Robert, David Stroh had an extensive criminal past and was described as a violent and dangerous person. Detectives also learned that Paul St. Claire may have had a friendship with David’s estranged wife.
Shortly after the sexual assault was reported, David Stroh disappeared, and Robert told investigators that David may have moved to Wyoming. The case was presented to a Washington County grand jury, and David Stroh was indicted for the sexual assault. An arrest warrant was issued for David, but local and Federal authorities could not locate him.
Detectives later spoke with a person who remembered driving David to a business in Clackamas, Oregon. When they arrived, Robert was waiting there, and then David Stroh was never seen again.
In November 1997 and May 1998, skeletal remains were found in a remote area of Grant County, south of John Day, Oregon. It was determined that the remains were of a male who had died by homicide, but his identity was not known. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office investigation estimated that the body had been at the recovery location since May or June of 1996.
Due to advances in genetic genealogy, the victim was identified in 2019 as David Stroh.
Robert Stroh (also known as Frank Tidwell) died in 2013.
Investigators would like to hear from anybody with information related to the disappearance of Paul St. Claire (formerly known as Lloyd Buzzard) or the murder of David Stroh. Please contact Detective Tim Miller at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 503-846-2690.
References:
Paul St. Claire/ Lloyd Buzzard: WCSO Case: 96-008691
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) case: MP20041
David Stroh: Grant County Sheriff Case #97-427 (PH: 541-575-1131)
On the morning of Saturday, June 22, 2024, Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to multiple reports of a car fire in the 15000 block of SW Sundew Drive.
Arriving deputies located a fully engulfed 1997 Toyota Camry owned by 19-year-old Ethan Mills of Portland. Deputies observed the flames spread to a nearby tree in the yard of a neighboring property and started sending embers toward the occupied home.
Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue (TVF&R) responded to extinguish the blaze.
As deputies investigated, they learned that Mills started the fire after previously breaking out the vehicle's windows. Mills was located nearby and taken into custody.
Mills was lodged in the Washington County Jail for Arson in the first degree, criminal mischief in the first degree, criminal mischief in the second degree, and recklessly endangering another person.
The Sheriff’s Office is grateful nobody was injured during the incident.