Three generations of family have faced the ripple effects from Warren Forrest’s alleged killing of Clark County woman Carol Valenzuela in 1974.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit is now working to convict Warren Forrest, a 1970s serial killer who lived in Battle Ground, for a third time. Forrest, who is already serving two life sentences, is facing a third possible conviction for the Valenzuela case.
Melissa Valenzuela, the daughter of Robert Valenzuela — Carol’s husband at the time of her murder — believes Forrest’s conviction would bring closure to the family.
“Well, considering my father has passed away two years ago, it would mean a great deal, especially [since] he has been a main suspect for over 40-plus years,” Melissa Valenzuela said. “It would clear his name. It would put both of them at peace. It would give my two sisters clarity, as well. Our whole family would have clarity.”
Growing up, Melissa Valenzuela knew that Carol’s murder had forever impacted her father.
“Losing Carol devastated him, and it had a big impact on all of his relationships,” she said, adding that Carol Valenzuela’s direct family considered Robert a main suspect. “I don’t know any of Carol’s family. I’ve never met them. For the longest time, my father would never talk about her at all. It hurt too much.”
Currently, the CCSO Cold Case Team is currently investigating the murder of Carol Valenzuela, whose remains were discovered alongside those of Martha Morrison, who Forrest was convicted of killing in February 2023.
“I’m fairly convinced that if we put all of the evidence in front of the jury today, that they would find him guilty with just what we have,” CCSO Cold Case investigator Doug Maas said. “But the other thing that’s running parallel to this is we discovered that we still have a significant amount of trace evidence, which is primarily hairs and fibers and nail clippings that we seized from his van in 1976.”
The remains of Carol Valenzuela and Martha Morrison were found in eastern Clark County, within Dole Valley woodlands. Both women disappeared during an 11-week period between Forrest’s murder of Krista Blake and his attempted murder of a woman who escaped from Lacamas Lake Park, a CCSO news release stated.
Investigators are also attempting to locate the remains of Jamie Grissim and Diane Gilchrist, whose disappearances remain unsolved.
“He’s got this pattern of taking half days off or taking time off before or after the crime,” Maas said.
Carol Valenzuela went missing on Aug. 2, 1974. That day, Forrest recorded a half day off from work.
Maas originally worked on the Forrest cases in the 1970s and investigated Forrest full time as a CCSO homicide detective in the later part of the 1970s as Forrest was slated to be released from a mental hospital ahead of any convictions.
He said the murder of Carol Valenzuela is the cold case unit’s focus right now.
“That’s the next logical one for us, and the reason that’s logical is we just prosecuted him on Martha Morrison,” Maas said. “Carol Valenzuela’s body is 100 feet from Martha Morrison’s. It’s all circumstantial, but there’s nothing wrong with circumstantial evidence, and that’s essentially how we prosecuted him on Krysta Blake.”
Forrest, 75, is currently serving two life sentences for the 1974 murders of Blake and Morrison. Forrest is suspected in the death, disappearances and assaults of seven other Clark County women and girls between 1971 and 1974, a news release stated.
Forrest was apprehended in 1974 after kidnapping, raping and attempting to murder a woman near Lacamas Lake. She survived the attack and helped lead CCSO investigators to Forrest, the release stated. At the time, Forrest was employed by Clark County Parks Department and lived in Battle Ground with his family.
Melissa Valenzuela said that, growing up, Carol’s murder impacted her family for a lifetime.
“Being raised by a single father [whose] first wife was murdered, yeah, [I had a] very small leash,” Melissa Valenzuela said. “When I was growing up. Pagers were a big thing. If I didn’t answer a page or I wasn’t where I was supposed to be or called when I was supposed to, that’s the first thing he went to was, ‘Oh God, something’s wrong,’ you know. And, I’ve raised my children that way, too.”
Larry Helige, Robert Valenzuela’s brother, said he had a close relationship with Carol.
“She was a wonderful person. She was definitely a big sister, you know. She was always looking out for me since she was helping with things that I was struggling with,” Larry Helige said. “She was very much a part of my life.”
Helige said the murder broke the family apart because his brother was considered a suspect. That put their mother into a “pretty dark depression for a long time,” he said.
“Even the Camas police would come to the house and yell at my mom, you know, with me standing right there. They’d go to my mom, ‘Your son is a murderer, and you’re supporting him, and that makes you a murderer, too,’ ” Helige recalled. “So it was really rough on my family.”
Even today, Helige said there is so much anger in the family. He said that Carol Valenzuela’s two daughters, who were like sisters to him, don’t even talk to him anymore. A Forrest conviction for the murder of Carol Valenzuela would bring the family justice and peace, Helige agreed.
“It’s going to be the end of it, you know, and they’re going to know that my brother was not involved in that,” he said.
