Police investigating death of woman in SW Portland

UPDATE: Nancy Bergeson was a longtime Portland public defender

The Portland Tribune, Nov 25, 2009, Updated Nov 26, 2009

Portland police homicide detectives are investigating the death of 57-year-old Nancy Bergeson who was found in a house in the 4100 block of Southwest Hamilton Street.

Police said Bergeson's was discovered shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24, and detectives have spent most of Wednesday examining her house near Hamilton Park.

Bergeson was a 20-year veteran of the Portland Public Defender’s Office who worked with clients in federal court.

Bergeson’s body was found when a friend stopped by her house to check on her. The friend called police, who went into the house and found Bergeson.

An autopsy showed that Bergeson died of “homicidal violence.”

Neighbors told Fox 12 that they were unnerved by the homicide.

“It’s very scary and being two doors down, it’s disturbing,” said Dave Grasser. “If you live here, then you know that there’s almost no police activity ever. Sometimes, I’ll go a whole entire year without seeing police on the street.”

Other people who live nearby had a hard time believing the crime was random. “I would tend to believe, knowing how violence is, somehow she knew them,” said Mike Morton.

Detectives have not released details of the crime.

Fox 12 contributed to this news report.

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit