UPDATED: This victim didn’t die from stabbing after all, officials say. As they identify the victim, the cause of death has changed …
Portland Police Bureau officers are dispatched to an apartment complex in the Centennial neighborhood on reports that a man had been stabbed.
By David F. Ashton
An elderly man lay dying of his injuries over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend, in the wee hours of Friday, November 28, at the Candalaria Plaza Apartments complex in the 900 block of SE 162nd Avenue.
Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers were dispatched to the apartments, just east of Oliver Middle School at 3:43 a.m., having had a report that a man had been stabbed at that location.
First officers, then Homicide Division detectives, arrive at the crime scene.
“Arriving officers found a deceased person,” PPB Public Information Officer Sergeant Kevin Allen stated that morning. “The suspect or suspects left the scene before police arrived, and no immediate arrests were made.”
PPB Homicide Division detectives arrived to investigate the crime.
Later that morning, Sergeant Allen told reporters, “There’s reason to think that there is an inarticulatable risk to families in the area; we know that this kind of incident raises a lot of concerns.”
The PPB’s Mobile Command Unit pulls into the driveway, providing office space for detectives and investigators.
On December 1, Portland Police revealed that the victim had been identified as 75-year-old James S. Miller, of Portland. The Medical Examiner determined Miller died of homicide by “blunt force trauma” and not by stabbing, as originally reported.
UPDATE
On September 22, 2026, the PPB revealed that, in the case of Miller’s death, PPB Homicide Unit detectives identified 55-year-old Mary Ann McKinzy as a suspect in the case.
On Wednesday, August 5, 2026, the U.S. Marshals Service located and arrested McKinzy in Bakersfield, California. She was lodged in the Kern County Jail until extradition. On Friday, September 18, 2026, McKinzy was transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) and lodged on the following charges: Murder in the Second Degree, Assault in the First Degree, and Negligent Homicide.
If you have information about this incident, email it to Homicidetips@police.portlandoregon.gov or call 503-823-0479 – and reference Case No. 25-325754.
© 2025 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
