Solved case · 1995
The short answer
Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, a longtime lesbian couple and LGBTQ activists in Medford, Oregon, were bound, gagged, and shot to death on December 4, 1995. Robert Acremant, who had posed as a prospective apartment renter to meet Ellis, confessed to the killings and was sentenced to death before his sentence was later reduced to life without parole.
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Suggest coverage for this caseRoxanne Ellis (born November 4, 1942) and Michelle Abdill (born July 8, 1953) were a couple who had been together for 12 years at the time of their deaths. They had moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Medford, Oregon, in 1990 after experiencing homophobia in Colorado. In Medford, they ran a property management business, served on their church board, and were active in opposing two Oregon ballot measures targeting LGBTQ rights and library access to LGBTQ-related materials.
On December 4, 1995, Ellis, 53, went to meet 27-year-old Robert Acremant, who had arranged to view an apartment she managed. Abdill, 42, later left work saying she was going to help jump-start Ellis's car after receiving a call that it would not start. Ellis's daughter went to the apartment complex and saw her mother's pickup truck pull away when she tried to follow it. Neither woman was seen alive again. Four days later, their bodies were found bound, gagged, and shot in the head in the back of Ellis's pickup truck, wrapped in drapes and covered with cardboard boxes, after a cable TV worker reported the vehicle to police.
The case drew significant attention from the local gay community and national advocacy groups, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which asked the U.S. Department of Justice to assist in the investigation given the couple's activism and a prior threat against them. Police released a composite sketch based on a witness description. Acremant's mother, who had recently moved to Medford with her son, recognized the sketch and address labels on moving boxes matching those found at the crime scene, and contacted police. Acremant was located at a motel in Stockton, California, and arrested on December 13, 1995. He confessed to the murders, initially citing robbery as his motive, and also confessed to killing Scott George in California on October 3, 1995.
Acremant's stated motives shifted over time. In an August 1996 letter to the Stockton Record, he wrote that knowing the victims were lesbians made it easier to kill them, and that he had killed Scott George after George made a pass at him. He later recanted this account, attributing the killings to a sudden urge. Prosecutors noted evidence undermining robbery as the sole motive, since valuables including purses, wallets, jewelry, and money were left at the scene.
Acremant pleaded guilty to the murders of Ellis and Abdill on September 11, 1996. On October 27, 1997, an Oregon jury sentenced him to death. Oregon's high court upheld the sentence in 2005, but in February 2011 a court found Acremant too delusional to assist in his appeal and reduced his sentence to life without parole. Acremant was found dead in his death row cell on October 26, 2018, from natural causes.
In the case's aftermath, the Abdill-Ellis Lambda Community Center opened in Ashland, Oregon, in August 1996 in the couple's honor, closing in August 2010. In April 2001, U.S. Senator Gordon H. Smith cited the murders in Senate debate on hate crimes legislation.
Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill move from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Medford, Oregon, after experiencing homophobia.
Robert Acremant later confessed to killing Scott George in California on this date.
Ellis and Abdill are killed in Medford, Oregon, after Ellis met Robert Acremant to show him an apartment.
The bodies of Ellis and Abdill are discovered in the back of Ellis's pickup truck after a cable TV worker reports the vehicle to police.
Robert Acremant is arrested at a motel in Stockton, California.
Police discover Scott George's remains in an abandoned mine shaft in Calaveras County, California, after Acremant tells his father where the body was disposed.
The Abdill-Ellis Lambda Community Center opens in Ashland, Oregon, in honor of the murdered couple.
Acremant writes a letter to the Stockton Record stating that knowing the victims were lesbians made it easier to kill them.
Acremant pleads guilty to the murders of Ellis and Abdill.
An Oregon jury sentences Acremant to death by lethal injection.
Oregon's high court upholds Acremant's death sentence.
The Abdill-Ellis Lambda Community Center closes.
An Oregon court declares Acremant too delusional to assist in his appeal; his sentence is reduced to life without parole.
Acremant is found dead in his death row cell from natural causes.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Killed on December 4, 1995, in Medford, Oregon, at age 42.[3]
Killed on December 4, 1995, in Medford, Oregon, at age 53.[3]
Pleaded guilty on September 11, 1996, to the murders of Ellis and Abdill; sentenced to death in 1997, later reduced to life without parole in 2011.[3]
From the record
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