OSP asks for help solving 1980s murder of mother and daughter found in Gales Creek area

The Oregon State Police are asking for the public’s help in solving the murders of a Hillsboro mother and her 10-year-old daughter whose remains were found near Gales Creek in 1983. Vicky McGuire, 33, and her daughter Christal McGuire, 10, disappeared in September 1982. The two had recently moved from Cornelius, and Christal was attending W.L. Henry Elementary School in Hillsboro at the time. Nearly a year later, on Sept. 13, 1983, Christal McGuire's remains were found in what the Oregon State Police described as the Forest Park area of Gales Creek near the Gales Creek campground. Vicky McGuire's remains were found nearby the following day. Both deaths were ruled homicides. "The most straightforward description is off Hwy. 6 near milepost 35," the Oregon State Police said in an email to this newspaper. The investigation was conducted by Oregon State Police with assistance from detectives at the Hillsboro Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. View Larger Map Investigators identified a Cornelius resident, Lester Crider, 32, as a person of interest in the murders. Crider was known to Vicky, according to OSP. Court records show Crider has been convicted on a series of sexual assault, assault, attempted murder and other charges over several decades, including sodomy charges stemming from the repeated sexual assault of his own daughter, who was under the age of 12 at the time of the assaults. Lester Crider. Photo courtesy OSP His crimes continued, with his most recent recorded conviction in 2019, the latest in a series of failures to report as a sex offender. The circumstances of the disappearances and killings have never been established. OSP said any connection between the McGuires or Crider and the location where the remains were found is also not known. OSP told KGW that Crider is still alive. The case remains unsolved more than 40 years later. Anyone with information about Vicky or Christal McGuire, Lester Crider, or this case is asked to contact the Oregon State Police Cold Case Unit at OSP.CCU@osp.oregon.gov and reference case number SP83-807847.