The Disappearance of Winnefred Jeanette Freeman, May 1968
Winnefred Jeanette Freeman, 20, was last seen on Wednesday, May 8, 1968 in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. She was seen getting into her car with a middle-aged, heavy-set man who has not been identified. Her car was a 1964 blue & white Chevrolet.
Four days later, on Sunday, May 12, 1968, Winnefred's car was found abandoned in the city. Very few details are available in her disappearance.
It is unknown if/when Winnefred was originally reported missing. On September 27, 1968, her parents — Mr and Mrs Isaac Harpole — published a $300 reward — $2,756.93 today — in The Oregonian for anyone with information concerning Winnefred or her possible abductor; informants were asked to notify the missing persons department of the Portland Police Bureau.
At the time of her disappearance, Winnefred was 20 years old, 5'4, and 115 to 120 lbs. She is a Black female with black hair and brown eyes. It is unknown what she was wearing when she was last seen.
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| 1965 Jefferson High School yearbook photo accessed from NamUs. |
In July 1964, Winnefred got married when she was 16 and her husband was about 20. They had two children together, one in 1964 and another in 1966, when Winnefred was 16 and 18, respectively.
Almost three years after Winnefred's disappearance, in April 1972, her husband successfully applied for divorce. On the certificate of divorce or annulment, the type of decree is Divorce, and the "legal grounds for decree" is listed as "Cruelty."
Winnefred is listed as having predeceased her father in his 2012 obituary. Her name is occasionally spelled "Winnifred."
According to the Doe Network, the availability of Winnefred's DNA, dentals, and fingerprints are unknown. The only entry on her NamUs exclusion list is a Jane Doe recovered in Columbia County in 1970 who has since been identified as Sandy Young.
Winnefred is classified as Missing on the Doe Network and the Charley Project. She is not listed in the Oregon State Police's Missing Persons Clearinghouse.
In the Contacts section of Winnefred's NamUs page, February 11, 2020 is listed under Date Reported. This is the same date that her NamUs case — #MP65219 — was created; it was last updated on July 13, 2023. The Doe Network page dedicated to her was created in July 2025.
Given the 1968 newspaper clipping regarding Winnefred's disappearance, it seems that there are two possibilities:
1) The "Date Reported" is incorrect, and simply reflects the date the NamUs case was created; this has been the case for other disappearances, though in this instance I am a bit hesitant to accept it, given that the agency case number — which usually starts with the last two digits of the reporting year — begins with "20."
2) Winnefred was reported missing in 1968, and then at some point the investigating agency either dropped the case or (more likely) lost the original report — possibly due to accidental destruction (fire, flood, etc) or during digitization — leading to the family needing to report her again in recent years.
Anyone with information regarding Winnefred or her disappearance should contact Detective Heidi Helwig of the Portland Police Bureau at (503) 823-0400. The agency case number is 20-680221.
Sources
Whereabouts Still Unknown blog
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