Cougar Burleigh's Death: Portland Police Make an Arrest

A Multnomah County grand jury indicted Browne, who was arrested near his Lents home Tuesday, on charges of second degree manslaughter and second degree assault. He was booked into Multnomah County Jail late Tuesday.

 

The investigation that led to this moment took an indirect path.

Portland Police found Burleigh unconscious on the west side of the Burnside Bridge, across the street from the Portland Rescue Mission, around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 12. He had a head injury but was missing his pants, his cellphone and his identification. Medical personnel took him to Oregon Health and Science University, where he was hooked up to life support with brain swelling. He didn't make it.

But police officers initially declined to open a homicide investigation, telling family and friends they believed Burleigh had fallen, possibly off a bike. Tests showed Burleigh's blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Burleigh, a state employee in Washington, had been in Portland visiting friends.

Family and friends didn't buy the officers' initial explanation. For one thing, Burleigh wasn't biking that night. They told police Burleigh had been murdered. "This is not an injury you get from falling," his stepmother, Nancy Shadley, told WW on Oct. 16. "He was definitely hit."

A break came in early November, when police announced that witnesses had come forward to say that Burleigh had been "involved in a confrontation and subsequently fell to the ground." On Nov. 7, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner's office said it would change the ruling of Burleigh's death from inconclusive to homicide.

"We knew it was a homicide from Day 1," Shadley said then.

Rebecca Random, one of Burleigh's Portland friends, said Tuesday's arrest brought some relief. She had been one of the people, along with Burleigh's family, urging police to dig further into Burleigh's death. "At first it was like 'oh, someone died' and then everyone was on their way," Random says. "We're all grateful for the police work that's been done."

Update on Feb. 4 at 12:30 pm: Shadley says she's ecstatic about the arrest. When Portland Police called her Tuesday night to let her know they'd made an arrest, Shadley's husband (Burleigh's dad) was at Walmart, so Shadley went to fetch him.

"They got him, they got him," she told him. "Who?" he responded.

"They got the guy who murdered Cougar," she told him. The pair then celebrated, jumping up and down in the Walmart parking lot.

"I called police every two weeks just so they wouldn't forget him," Shadley says. "Police said it was an accident, and then there turned out to be witnesses. That was the turning point."