NOV 16, 2022
Sarah Leffler touches the framed pencil drawing her daughter, Linda Peterson, created and remembers a time when she could look at the artwork and feel happy.
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SL touches the framed pencil drawing her daughter, Linda Peterson, created and remembers a time when she could look at the artwork and feel happy.
A time when she could have phoned Linda simply because she wanted to hear her voice.
A time when they might have spent an afternoon together, perhaps laughing about that drawing, which Linda made one day at Phillips Reservoir, a tableau of mountains and water and cabins.
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“She drew that in 30 minutes,” SL says, a palpable wonder in her voice as she contemplates Linda’s artistic ability.
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They believe Linda is dead.
That she was murdered.
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SL’s eldest daughter, LP, who’s about a year older than Linda and grew up with her in Grants Pass, said that when she drives by the apartment at 2450 Broadway St. where Linda was living when she disappeared, she “starts crying really bad.”
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“This is an active homicide investigation,” Duby said on Wednesday, Nov. 9. “We’ve followed every single lead that we’ve ever gotten, and we continue to do this.”
Linda’s relatives became alarmed in mid March 2019 when she didn’t attend a dance recital for her granddaughter in Baker City.
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Although Linda, who moved to Baker City in 1989, had lived on the streets for periods before moving into her apartment, LP said her sister was not prone to disappearing without telling relatives in advance.
But LP had another reason to fear for her sister.
Not long before, the last time LP drove Linda to her apartment, Linda had acted strangely.
“I had a feeling about her that something was wrong,” Loretta said. “She was not herself.”
Specifically, Linda said she was afraid to go to her apartment. She was frightened of the people who were staying with her.
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“Not long before she went missing that I started noticing changes in her behavior,” LP said.
Linda even talked about what LP should do if Linda were to die.
SL also recalls her daughter, in the few weeks before she disappeared, saying she was afraid of people who were living with her.
Sarah believes Linda was a victim of her own kindness, that she tried to help the people who ended up killing her.
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“I talked her into getting that apartment — I wished I hadn’t,” SL said. “She was safe on the street. Safer, anyway.”
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Linda’s mother, her sisters and her daughter-in-law, SM, who lives in La Grande and is married to Linda’s son, AM, all believe that Linda was murdered and that they know two people who were involved.
That pair, a man and a woman, seem to be inextricably linked to Linda’s disappearance, SL said.
Many people have mentioned those two names when talking about the case, she said.
S, who helped A, Linda’s daughter, clean out Linda’s apartment after she disappeared, said there was no evidence that a struggle had taken place in the apartment. No blood, no marks on the walls.
S, like Linda’s other relatives, believes she was killed somewhere else.
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Sarah said Linda had withdrawn $400 from an account just before she went missing.
“The two people I think did it, I think they wanted that money,” SL said.
Duby, the police chief, said officers removed a variety of items from Linda’s apartment, including sections of carpet and furniture.
The items were tested but none yielded evidence that suggested any crime had been committed in the apartment.
But neither does that mean Linda wasn’t harmed there, he said.
“It’s an unknown,” Duby said.
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Duby said police have obtained warrants to search multiple buildings and properties and have employed dogs trained to find cadavers.
Police towed a van from one property that, according to rumors, might have been involved in Linda’s disappearance, and that she had been in the van, possibly after she died.
“We tore that thing apart,” Duby said. “There was not one iota of evidence.”
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Duby said the police department’s file on Linda’s disappearance contains nearly 1,000 pages of documents.
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L said she got a call more than a year and a half ago, in March 2021, from a woman who said her niece claimed to have been present when Linda was killed.
The woman told L that her niece, the supposed witness, had been threatened by someone who was involved in killing Linda.
Lucille said she doesn’t know whether the story is true.
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Baxter said police have received multiple leads in Linda’s disappearance in 2022, and they will continue to probe each one.
“It’s an active case that we are pursuing,” Baxter said. “We are working hard.”
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S said that when her husband, Anthony, Linda’s son, was in prison several years ago for selling drugs, Linda stayed with her for more than a year to help with Stephanie’s children.
S said she wishes Linda were here to help now.
“I’m a single mom right now with four kids, and I know if mom was here, she’d be here to help me,” S said, never adding “in law” when referring to Linda.
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Although Linda had suffered from mental illness as well as struggling with addiction, she had also volunteered at MayDay in Baker City and Shelter from the Storm in Island City, agencies that help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
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