Edward Delon Warren

Thirty‑three years after 80‑year‑old Rosa Cinnamon was killed in her Portland apartment, her grandchildren sat in a police conference room and finally heard a name. ^[1]

Detectives and state forensic scientists laid it out for them: DNA scraped from beneath Rosa’s fingernails in 1976, stored in a paper bag for more than three decades, had matched a man already familiar to Oregon’s courts and prisons — convicted robber, burglar, and double murderer Edward Delon Warren. ^[1]

But Warren would never stand trial for Rosa’s death. He had died in custody in 2003, at age 49, after serving life terms for killing two teenagers along the Chetco River near his hometown of Brookings. ^[1][2][3]

To understand how an elderly woman’s preserved fingernail scrapings and a remote riverside double murder converged on the same man, it helps to move backward — from that press conference table to the beginning of Warren’s violent record.

From Brookings to Armed Robbery

Edward Delon Warren was born in 1953 in the small coastal town of Brookings, Oregon, the older of two siblings. ^[3]

By his late teens, he had turned to violent crime. Police and court records show that in January 1972 he robbed a Portland convenience store at gunpoint and was convicted of armed robbery. ^[1] He was imprisoned for that robbery. ^[3]

According to police accounts later traced by retired detective Mike Stahlman, Warren’s criminal history escalated quickly. ^[1] In 1973, he escaped from prison, broke into a Salem woman’s home, tied her up at gunpoint, and stole her car before being recaptured. ^[1] Stahlman described Warren’s record as “lengthy and brutal.” ^[1]

Police say Warren remained in prison from December 1973 through March 24, 1976. ^[1] What happened on the day he got out would haunt another family for decades.

March 24–25, 1976: Rosa Cinnamon’s Last Night

Rosa Cinnamon was 80, a Dayton, Ohio, native who had settled in Portland. ^[1] On the night of March 24, 1976, she phoned her 15‑year‑old grandson, Bob. ^[1] She told him it was too late for him to ride the bus to visit and suggested he come the next morning instead. ^[1]

Bob stayed home. He later said he always wondered what would have happened if he had gone anyway and spent the night at her apartment. ^[1]

Evidence in a Paper Bag

The state medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy on Rosa’s body. During that exam, an examiner scraped under her fingernails with a wooden stick to collect potential evidence. ^[1] Scrapings from beneath her right fingernails — a mix of dirt and human tissue — were packaged in a paper bag and placed in a Portland police evidence warehouse, where they sat for more than 30 years. ^[1]

For Rosa’s family, there were no such preserved leads. For more than three decades, they lived with the gap — a beloved grandmother killed in her own home, with no clear suspect and no answer to the basic question of “why.” ^[1]

The man police now say was responsible moved on, racking up more violence and, eventually, murder convictions.

The Chetco River Killings

Confession and a Death Sentence

Authorities say that Warren confessed to the September 1979 killings of Hemphill and Toma. ^[1] When his case went to trial in February 1980, he offered his own account from the witness stand.

At that trial, Warren claimed that a profane remark from Hemphill led to Hemphill being shot. ^[3] He also said he ordered Charla Toma to drive Hemphill’s pickup up the Chetco River and later shot her in the back three times. ^[3]

Warren was convicted of two counts of murder. ^[3] He was sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to two terms of life imprisonment. ^[3] One contemporary account notes that he was sentenced to two life‑in‑prison terms for the double murders, which he then served until his death. ^[1][2]

For the families of Hemphill and Toma, the case had a clear legal outcome: the man police said had killed their children sat on death row, then in a cell serving life.

For Rosa Cinnamon’s family, living 300 miles north in Portland, her murder stayed officially unsolved.

DNA, Cold Cases, and a Posthumous Match

Even in the years when Rosa’s file gathered dust, the evidence under her fingernails did not disappear. It waited for technology to catch up.

In 1999, as part of a statewide effort, Warren’s DNA was entered into Oregon’s database. ^[1] That profile would later become the crucial bridge between an aging paper bag in an evidence warehouse and a closed cold case.

In 2007, Portland’s Cold Case Unit revisited Rosa Cinnamon’s file. Cold case investigator Robbie Thompson resubmitted the preserved fingernail scrapings to the state crime lab for modern DNA testing. ^[1]

In January 2008, the lab recorded a hit: the profile under Rosa’s fingernails matched Edward Delon Warren. ^[1] State police forensic scientist Heather Feaman later explained that the scrapings were well‑preserved because they had remained dry. ^[1]

Retired Detective Mike Stahlman was assigned to Rosa’s case about five months after that DNA match. ^[1] He dug into Warren’s history and movements, concluding that Warren’s residence at the time of the killing was just 441 feet from Rosa’s apartment door. ^[1]

Stahlman also emphasized Rosa’s resistance. He said she fought and clawed for her life, actions that likely trapped her killer’s DNA under her nails and ultimately allowed investigators to identify him decades later. ^[1]

The Portland Police Bureau’s Cold Case Unit formally announced that it had tied Warren to Rosa’s murder using DNA recovered from her fingernail scrapings. ^[1] State police described it as the oldest homicide their crime lab had ever solved through a DNA match. ^[1]

The 2009 Press Conference: Closure Without a Trial

Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer publicly credited modern forensic technology, the persistence of cold case investigators, and the use of federally funded retired detectives for closing Rosa’s case. ^[1]

By then, Bob was 48; Lorrie was 49. ^[1] For 33 years, they had wondered why anyone would want to hurt their grandmother. ^[1] Now they were hearing that a convicted murderer whose criminal record stretched back to the early 1970s had lived less than 500 feet from her and, according to investigators, attacked her the same day he walked out of prison. ^[1]

There would be no prosecution. Bob told reporters that the accused would not be charged because he was dead. ^[1] Warren had died in custody in 2003, at age 49, after serving life terms for the Brookings double murders. ^[1][2].

Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer publicly credited modern forensic technology, the persistence of cold case investigators, and the use of federally funded retired detectives for closing Rosa’s case. ^[1]

For Bob, closure included gratitude. He said he personally thanked Portland police and the Oregon State Police “for the sake of the family and the sake of the victim.” ^[1] He also acknowledged the question that would never fully go away for him: what if he had ignored his grandmother’s advice, ridden the bus that night, and stayed over? ^[1]

Serial Predator or Violent Outlier?

In the years since the DNA announcement, some writers have described Edward Delon Warren as an American serial killer and criminal. ^[2] What is firmly documented is narrower: he was convicted of two counts of murder for the 1979 Brookings killings and had earlier convictions for armed robbery and other violent crimes. ^[1][3]