Murders of two women in 1973 still rock families - Portland Tribune

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Oct 28, 2011

Courtesy of Fox 12

Best friends Delores Thompson and Gwendolyn Fulce were brutally murdered in September 1973 in a North Portland home as Delores’s toddler son was nearby. Their families still feel the sting of the unsolved murders.

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A wall in the front room of Bambi Thompson’s Portland home is covered with dozens of family photos. They include aunts, grandsons, cousins and one sister who's been gone for 38 years.

“She didn‘t even get a chance to know her own kids, you know,” says Bambi, Delores Thompson’s sister.

Clark Thompson was only 7 when his mother, Delores, was murdered. He has few memories of his mother. “And the last memory I have of her was two caskets,” says Clark.

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Fox 12 is doing a series on unsolved murders being reviewed by the Portland Police Bureau’s Cold Case Homicide Unit. KPTV reporter Nicole Doll spent weeks looking at the unit’s files. Here is her most recent report, which was broadcast Thursday on the 10 O’clock news.

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Two caskets, two young women, their lives snuffed out on a tree-lined street in North Portland. One was 27-year-old Delores. The other was 21-year-old Gwendolyn Fulce, her best friend.

“And wherever Poochie went — Poochie, that’s my sister — wherever Poochie went, then Gwen was there, you know,” says Bambi.

Investigators say the two women were murdered on Sept. 8, 1973. Their bodies were discovered by the father of Delores’ 2 1/2-year-old son, Ronnie. The father came to her rented home in the 500 block of North Ivy Street to pick up the boy. He found the two young women bludgeoned to death, the child left with the bodies. Investigators say the toddler was the only witness.

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