PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — November 29, 1988 was a Tuesday, just weeks after George H.W. Bush was elected President to succeed Ronald Reagan.
On that particular night, Deborah Lee Atrops was supposed to pick up her 8-month-old daughter from her estranged husband’s residence in Sherwood. When she didn’t arrive at the agreed-upon time between 7:30 and 8 p.m., her husband Robert filed a missing person report.
The next day, her 1988 black Honda Accord was spotted at a dead end of Murray Road. The license plates were gone. The driver’s window was rolled down. Police found her body in the trunk.
Investigators said the position of her body inside the trunk indicated she was put there after she was killed. Witnesses said they noticed the car there early in the day on November 30.
A few days later, an autopsy revealed Deborah Atrops was physically assaulted and strangled to death. She was 30.