The murder of Elizabeth Wasson
Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon · 1992
Overview
Elizabeth Wasson, an 82-year-old widow known around her Hillsboro, Oregon neighborhood as the Avon Lady, was strangled inside her own home, where she was found dead on September 23, 1992. Serial killer Cesar Barone was suspected at the time because the killing fit his pattern of attacking elderly women living alone, but detectives could not directly link him to the case. In 2023 a Hillsboro detective resubmitted preserved crime-scene evidence for modern DNA testing; male DNA recovered from it forensically tied Barone to the murder. Barone had already been convicted of four other Portland-area murders and sentenced to death in 1995, and he died in prison in 2009. The Washington County District Attorney announced the link on February 10, 2026.
How it was solved
Cesar Barone was a known, previously considered suspect in Elizabeth Wasson's 1992 murder long before DNA could prove it. Investigators recognized at the time that Wasson, an elderly woman attacked in her own home, fit the profile of Barone's other victims, but the technology of the early 1990s could not directly connect him. The case fit the second of the method's two paths: modern re-testing of preserved old evidence tying a known suspect. In 2023, Hillsboro Police Department Detective Megan Townsend reexamined the cold case and submitted physical evidence collected at the scene — reported to include the dress Wasson was wearing during the attack — to the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory for additional testing. Laboratory technicians developed a male DNA profile from that material and forensically matched it to Cesar Barone, who had died on death row in 2009. The Washington County District Attorney's Office Cold Case Unit, working with the Hillsboro Police Department, announced on February 10, 2026 that the DNA had conclusively linked Barone to Wasson's killing. This was not a database trawl or a family-tree genealogy search: it was a targeted re-test of preserved evidence that confirmed the guilt of a specific man investigators had suspected for more than three decades.
Sources
- Cold Case Unit confirms 1992 Elizabeth Wasson murder linked to serial killer Cesar Barone
“Elizabeth Wasson, 82, was found murdered in her home on September 23, 1992. The cause of death was strangulation. Detective Megan Townsend reviewed the cold case and submitted physical evidence from the murder scene to the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory for additional testing.”
- 1992 Cold Case Murder Linked to Notorious Serial Killer
“Barone was previously considered a suspect, but detectives were unable to directly link him to her case. Technicians discovered male DNA on the material that forensically linked Mr. Barone to Mrs. Wasson's murder. Detective Townsend stated: 'For years, this family lived without answers. Today, we're finally able to give them the truth they deserved from the beginning.'”
- DNA links serial killer to 1992 murder of Oregon grandmother
“DNA evidence has linked serial killer Cesar Barone to the 1992 murder of Hillsboro resident Elizabeth Wasson. The case was announced February 10, 2026. Chief Deputy District Attorney Allison Brown added: 'This office remains dedicated to delivering justice for victims and their loved ones, no matter how much time has passed.'”
- Cesar Barone
“Cesar Francesco Barone (born Adolph James Rode Jr.; December 4, 1960 - December 24, 2009) was an American serial killer sentenced to death in 1995 for assaulting and killing four women in the Portland metropolitan area between 1991 and 1993. Confirmed victims include Margaret Helen Schmidt (62, strangled, April 1991), Elizabeth Burtis Wasson (82, September 23, 1992), Martha Browning Bryant (41, shot, October 9, 1992), Chantee Woodman (23) and Betty Lou Williams (51).”
- Unrepentant serial killer Barone takes secrets to grave
“Barone, an unrepentant serial killer, was arrested in 1993 and remained on death row until his natural death in 2009, refusing to admit guilt in other potential crimes.”
- Ore. killer dies at 49 on death row
“Cesar Barone died December 24, 2009, at age 49 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem after being diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his heart. He had been sentenced to death for murdering four women.”
- DNA Ties 1992 Murder to Serial Killer
“Wasson was killed in her home on September 23, 1992; her daughter found her dead in a back bedroom. Investigators submitted the dress Wasson wore during the attack to the Oregon State Police crime lab; testing completed in 2023 produced a match to Barone. Barone was suspected but investigators lacked sufficient evidence to charge him, as Wasson matched the profile of his other victims - elderly women living alone.”
- Who Were Cesar Barone's Victims? How Did Cesar Barone Die?
“Cesar Barone died on December 24, 2009, at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem from a cancerous tumor on his heart at age 49. He received death sentences for the murders of Martha Bryant, Chantee Woodman, and Margaret Schmidt, plus an 89-year sentence for Betty Williams.”