A welfare check on June 24, 1962, led deputies to a grim discovery near Battle Ground: Lester McCollum dead inside his home from suffocation due to strangulation, and Charles Hale dead as well. Sixty-four years later, the Clark County Sheriff's Office says the case is finally solved, making it the oldest cold case on record with the agency, according to KATU.
The case was solved, The Columbian reported. Hale, 72, and McCollum, 67, were brothers-in-law and longtime friends who lived together at a home on Northeast 199th Street near Battle Ground, according to the paper.
A Case That Waited Decades
The killings remained unsolved for decades before the Sheriff's Office announced a resolution.
A Breakthrough, Then a Death, Then Another Breakthrough
Investigators located and interviewed Stebbins in 2025 and obtained a DNA sample from him that year. The results came back June 3, 2026 — just two days after Stebbins himself died on June 1, 2026, closing one path to prosecution before it could fully open, as noted by KATU.
The newspaper reported that both suspects have died.
A Cold Case Resolved
Sheriff John Horch reestablished the Clark County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Team in 2024, the newspaper reported back in June.
Even without a trial, investigators say they were able to provide answers to the victims' families.
