Holocaust victim

On the afternoon of July 17, 1974, 15-year-old Norma Jean Countryman was sitting beside a road in Ridgefield, Washington, smoking a cigarette. She was going through abuse at home and just wanted to get away for a while. A blue van stopped beside her, and the man inside started talking to her. At first, she thought about walking away, but in the end, she accepted his offer to give her a ride home.

The driver was Warren Forrest, a 28-year-old worker for the Clark County Parks Department. As soon as Norma Jean got into the van, he pulled a knife on her and kidnapped her. He drove deep into the forests of southern Washington, where he tied her hands and feet together. He used rough rope to bind and gag her, then tied her between two trees so she was hanging like a hammock. Norma Jean later said she truly believed she was going to die that day. She remembered saying every prayer she knew over and over in her mind, hoping she would survive.

Forrest left her there, saying he would come back later. Instead of waiting, Norma Jean began chewing through the ropes around her hands until she finally broke free. Even with her hands and ankles still tied, she hopped through the dark forest all night until she finally found help.

After escaping, she went straight to the police and told them everything she knew. She gave them the kidnapper's name, described his face, his blue van, the rope he used, and the knife he threatened her with. But no one believed her. What investigators did not know at the time was that just one week earlier, Forrest had kidnapped 20-year-old Krista Blake. She had already been murdered, and her body was buried in the same forest, only a short distance from where Norma Jean had been tied up.

Because Norma Jean's report was ignored, more young women disappeared. Investigators now believe Warren Forrest may be connected to several murders from the early 1970s. He was not arrested until later that year after he kidnapped and raped a 19-year-old woman near Lacamas Lake. She survived the attack and helped police identify him.

Forrest was later convicted of murdering 20-year-old Krista Blake. In 2023, almost 50 years after Norma Jean's kidnapping, he was also found guilty of killing 17-year-old Martha Morrison, whose murder happened in 1974. Investigators are still looking into other unsolved cases that may be connected to him, including the murder of 20-year-old Carol Valenzuela, whose remains were found near Martha's.

It took nearly 20 years before Norma Jean Countryman felt ready to tell her story publicly. She lived with the pain and trauma for most of her life and was never offered professional therapy. Since then, she has spoken at several parole hearings. She said she attends not only for herself but also for every person whose life was affected by Warren Forrest's crimes, including victims she did not even know existed on the day she stepped into his van, and the families and children left behind.

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