"The Selfish Actions of My Youth": Warren Forrest Before the Parole Board, 2022

At a 2022 parole hearing, Warren Forrest blamed "deviant fantasies", apologised for the "selfish actions of my youth" and declined, on his lawyer's advice, to discuss other killings. The board added ten years.

Subject

Warren Leslie Forrest

Recorded

June 28, 2022

Runtime

4:31

Content warning: Concerns the abduction and murder of teenage girls and young women, and refers to rape.

The Interview

In May 2022 Warren Leslie Forrest, then 72 and nearly five decades after his arrest, asked the Washington State Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to find him fit for release. KOIN 6 in Portland broadcast clips of the hearing on June 28, 2022, with its report that the board had turned him down. In the clips Forrest says that "deviant fantasies" were a distraction from his everyday life that led him to his crimes, apologises for the "selfish actions of my youth", and tells the board that his attorney has instructed him not to comment on crimes for which he has not been tried.

Historical Context

Between 1971 and 1974 a series of teenage girls and young women disappeared or were found dead in Clark County, Washington, and nearby Portland. Forrest, a Clark County parks department worker, was arrested in 1974. At his first trial, for an attack on a woman who survived at Lacamas Lake, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1979 he was convicted of the murder of Krista Blake, whose remains had been found near Battle Ground in 1976, and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Detectives have long suspected him in other cases, including those of Jamie Grissim, 16, who vanished in December 1971, and Diane Gilchrist, 14, who vanished in May 1974; neither has been found. In December 2019, after DNA testing linked a bloodstain on his dart gun to Martha Morrison, a 17-year-old from Portland found dead in 1974, he was charged with her murder.

Circumstances of the Interview

The 2022 hearing came while the Morrison charge was pending. At an earlier hearing, in 2017, Forrest had for the first time admitted killing Krista Blake and described other attacks, but said she was the only person he had killed; the board denied parole then too. In 2022 the board found that he did not appear to have good insight into why he committed the murder, noted that he still scored as a high concern for sexual assault, and added ten years to his earliest release date.

What the Interview Covers

The hearing clips are short: well under a minute of Forrest in all. He confirms he was married with two young daughters at the time, gives his explanation of the fantasies he says drove him, apologises, and declines to discuss "unadjudicated crimes". The KOIN report around them recounts the Blake murder, the two missing girls, the DNA evidence in the Morrison case, and the words of Jamie Grissim's sister, who asked the board never to release him. A detective says Forrest "has not told the truth in all these years".

What Makes the Recording Significant

These clips record him explaining himself to the board that decides his release, and refusing, on counsel's advice, to answer questions about the other deaths of which he is suspected, while the murder charge filed against him in December 2019 was still pending.

Archival Importance

After this report Forrest was tried for the murder of Martha Morrison. He was convicted in February 2023 and sentenced to a second life term on February 17, 2023. The hearing clips preserve an account of himself given before that conviction.

Important Caveats

Forrest's statements about his motive and his remorse are his own account; the board did not find him sincere or forthcoming. He has not been charged in the cases of Jamie Grissim and Diane Gilchrist, and the report's figure of seven victims reflects detectives' suspicions, not convictions. The report was broadcast while the Morrison case was pending; he has since been convicted. The YouTube description says the board "denied his parole"; the report itself says the board added ten years to his earliest release date. The women who survived his attacks are not named here. The clips are edited excerpts of a longer hearing.

Anchor: Only on 6, a Clark County man suspected of killing seven women and girls learns whether the parole board will set him free early. The decision comes at the same time the suspected serial killer is awaiting trial for the murder of a teenager who died nearly 50 years ago.

Reporter: A DNA breakthrough is making it possible now to prosecute Warren Forrest. He's a man that I call the forgotten serial killer. He's only been brought to justice for one murder. And it's been a strange situation lately, where he's finally supposed to stand trial for a second murder while at the same [time] trying to convince the parole board he's no longer a danger. We have just learned the parole board isn't buying it.

Board Member: You were married at the time, correct, and had two young daughters?

Warren Forrest: Yes, ma'am.

Reporter: Warren Forrest, who will turn 73 tomorrow, tried last month to explain his violent history and make his case to the Washington State parole board he's been rehabilitated after nearly five decades behind bars.

Warren Forrest: All I had in mind was a distraction, and the distractions was, you know, deviant fantasies, and the deviant fantasies distracted me from my everyday life. But [unclear: "that led me to my crimes" / "then it led me to my crime"].

Reporter: Forrest told the parole board he was feeling worthless and hopeless when he kidnapped, hog-tied and killed 19-year-old Krista Blake and buried her body near Battle Ground in 1974. He told the parole board his violent thoughts have diminished to next to nothing.

Warren Forrest: I'm sorry for all the pain that I've created. That, uh, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret the selfish, selfish actions of my youth.

Reporter: But the parole board did not believe he was sincere or forthcoming, writing, "He does not appear to have good insight into the reason why he committed the murder." The board also asked Forrest about other crimes. Detectives believe he killed these seven young women and teenagers in the early 1970s. Two more survived his attacks that are too brutal to detail on TV.

Warren Forrest: Uh, I've been instructed by my, uh, attorney, uh, Mr. Downs, uh, not to comment on any unadjudicated crimes.

Reporter: Detectives say two of Forrest's victims have never been found: 14-year-old Diane Gilchrist and 16-year-old Jamie Grissim. Jamie's sister urged the parole board to never let Forrest go free.

Sister Of Jamie Grissim: No, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think of her, even all these years later. It's been a half century, but I think about her every day.

Reporter: The parole board noted even though Forrest completed a sex offender treatment program [unclear: "8 years ago" / not in Whisper], he still scores as a high concern when it comes to sexual assault. And he admits [he] continued to have fleeting thoughts of deviant fantasies. For those reasons and the suspicion he's killed others, the board tacked on 10 years to his earliest release date.

Reporter: Warren, do you have anything to say to the families?

Reporter: The ruling means Forrest will stay locked up waiting for his trial on the murder of Portland teenager Martha Morrison. After decades of frustration, detectives finally got a breakthrough in her case in 2015, when a bloodstain on this dart gun was proven to be Martha's blood through DNA. It is the same gun Forrest admitted using when he brutally raped another woman at Lacamas Lake.

Detective: He has a lot to explain. And he has not told the truth in all these years. He always likes to say, "Well, I'm a changed person. I [just] killed Krista Blake. That was it." It was a lot more than that.

Reporter: So, Warren Forrest told the parole board he wanted to live with his daughter and her three children in the town of Rainier, Washington, if he was released. And he's still married to his second wife, who he met 40 years ago in prison. She was his nurse. His trial is scheduled for October. Forrest's lawyers told the court he may plead insanity. He did that in his first trial after the woman survived his brutal attack at Lacamas Lake. ---