Body found in manhunt may be teen’s
Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police, second from the left, speaks during a news conference as Cody Myers' family looks on Wednesday, Oct. 5 2011, in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
By NIGEL DUARA,Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Investigators in a Pacific Northwest manhunt said they have recovered the body of a young adult and have notified the family of a missing Oregon teenager, althou
gh the remains have not been positively identified.
The body was found late Tuesday in a wooded area in Oregon's Willamette Valley, and the evidence shows it was not an accidental death, Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police said Wednesday.
Authorities have been looking for Cody Myers, 19, of Lafayette, (right) who disappeared after leaving Saturday for a jazz festival on the Oregon coast.
The manhunt is focused on David Joseph Pedersen, 31, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, who have been spotted using Myers' car. The couple are suspected of killing Pedersen's stepmother in Everett, Wash., and his father is also missing.
Hastings said Pedersen and Grigsby should be considered armed and dangerous and are believed to be in the Willamette Valley, Oregon's most populous region.
The two have criminal records, and Pedersen was released from prison in May after serving seven ye
ars on an assault conviction.
"We want to emphasize the public safety danger these two suspects pose in our community," Hastings said.
Hastings said investigators have received 29 tips, and a few were promising.
Investigators are looking for a Jeep they believe the pair abandoned and for Myers' Plymouth Breeze, which investigators said Pedersen and Grigsby had on Sunday when the woman tried to use a stolen credit card at a Salem gasoline station.
Pedersen's stepmother, Leslie Pedersen, 69, was found dead Sept. 28 with her hands tied with duct tape and a bloody pillow wrapped around her head. Police said Tuesday they have probable cause to arrest the two suspects on murder charges.
Leslie Pedersen's husband, David Jones Pedersen, was missing, Everett police said.
David Joseph Pedersen's convictions date to 1997, when he was 16 and convicted of robbery in Marion County, Ore., public records show. He spent nearly six years in prison and was released in January 2003.
Less than a month later, he was arrested on charges that included assaulting a police officer in Eastern Oregon's Umatilla County. He was convicted on one count and spent seven years in prison.
Grigsby spent time in prison for a variety of minor charges beginning in 2006, including identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle. After completing probation, she was again sentenced in 2008 on identity theft charges and served two years.