Alarm has been raised in Portland, USA – the largest city in the US state of Oregon and seat of Multnomah County – as authorities suspect that a serial killer of young women is on the loose in the area.

In the last 6 months, 6 young women, all under the age of 40, who had been reported missing by their relatives, were found dead in various deserted locations.

The first body found on February 19 was that of 22-year-old Christine Smith, and the latest gruesome police find was that of another 22-year-old, Ashley Reel, who had been reported missing since March 27 and was found on May 7 by a man fishing in a pond in the Eagle Creek area.

All the bodies of the victims were found within a radius of about 150 kilometers, on the sides of country roads, in the forest or in isolated rural areas.