An Oregon man who killed his commanding officer in the Army in 1976 and was freed on parole in 1988 is now charged in a cold case double murder that left two teens dead in 1974 — thanks to modernized ballistics testing, authorities said Friday.
And police are asking anyone with information on Steven Criss, 65, to come forward – because there might be “additional homicides.”
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that new testing shows Donald Bartron, 16, and Peter Zito Jr., 18, were killed with the same gun as Army Sgt. Jacob “Kim” Brown.
All three victims had been shot multiple times in the head with a .22-caliber pistol, according to the sheriff’s office. But the science at the time did not link the weapon to the teens’ deaths.
Steven Criss was arrested Wednesday, Nov. 2, using the same handcuffs a deputy placed on him back in 1974, when outdated ballistics testing failed to link his firearm to a double homicide.
(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
“Just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 3, 1974, an Oregonian newspaper delivery driver reported seeing a person on the ground next to a car parked at the Oak Hills Recreation Center,” Detective Mark Povolny said during a news briefing.
The first deputy, Jim Spinden, who later became the county sheriff, arrived on scene in under three minutes, he said. Spinden found Zito dead on the ground next to a 1956 Oldsmobile with the trunk and hood open.
Slumped over in the engine bay was Bartron, who investigators said was working under the hood at the time of the attack.
A crime scene photo from the 1974 double slayings.
(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
Bartron and Criss, who was then 17, worked together at the time at the Black Angus Restaurant, Povolny said, and Criss “had reason to be upset with Donny and Peter.” He did not elaborate.
Spinden arrested Criss on a theft charge two months later, Povolny said, and recovered an “illegally concealed .22” in his car – but forensics at the time found now link between that gun and the deaths of Bartron and Zito. The sheriff’s office had to return the firearm to Criss.
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