A sample of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office's new cold-case billboards that will be going up around Portland as police try to lay to rest the cases still on the books.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office is taking its cold cases to the streets.

There are about 40 cold homicide cases filed at the sheriff's aging building at the southeast corner of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Glisan Street. And photos of nearly all of those victims are seeing the light of day again: on 12 billboards in Multnomah County.

Detectives hope this new plan will remind people about old cases, and gather the public input that will finally bring justice for the families of those who died in the county's unincorporated neighborhoods.

The first billboard went up Monday at the Portland intersection of Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 105th Avenue. Five more billboards are scheduled to go up this week around the county.

This is one of the first times in America's history that the law - rather than private individuals or organizations - has posted cold cases to billboards.

"I've never seen a sheriff's office do this before, or another law enforcement do this," said Lieutenant Mary Lindstrand at the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office. "It is very expensive, and taxpayer dollars normally won't pay for it."

Indeed, this project has been funded "at no cost to the taxpayers" since everything has been donated. Clear Channel Outdoor donated the billboard space. Sign production was paid by more than $2,300 in donations from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Management Association, the Deputy and Corrections Deputy Associations and the sheriff's Retiree Group. 

"To get the donations to do this is huge," Lindstrand said.

Bringing the cases to light is a nine-member Cold Case Homicide Squad and two administrators - all donating their time to the cause.

Nine retired sheriff''s deputies are working the cold cases, crowding into two rooms in the crumbling Glisan Street building and overseen by detective's on-staff at the Sheriff's Department. "Plus we have an an administrative person - 30 years with the sheriff's office who now volunteers her time - and a public relations person," Linstrand said.

In addition to tips, the cold-case squad also is re-submitting evidence to be forensically tested. The volunteers are now pouring over binders of police reports from the original investigations, checking records on key individuals in the cases and reestablishing contact with people as necessary, checking to see where evidence is stored, and assessing if evidence should be forensically processed using new technology at the Oregon State Crime lab. At least eight of 13 priority cases have had evidence resubmitted to the lab.

Meanwhile, the vinyl billboards have been placed on 12 Clear Channel structures in east Portland and Gresham, and may be located near the site of where the crimes occurred. The first 12 signs will be visible for at least a month.

With the first Multnomah County billboards going up just this week, Lindstrand said her office has yet to receive tips. But she's hoping.

To be sure, KATU.com tracked down billboards in other areas that profiled single cold cases. In Riddle, Ore., the Lamar Sign Company donated a half dozen billsboards to the decade-long search for Stephanie Condon. Condon's killer was apprehended, pleading guilty in October, but only after a man walking his dog found Condon's remains.

Meanwhile, in Salt Lake City and Oakland, Calif. that family members of murder victims there have erected their own billboards. Family blogs report no arrests as a result, and a cold-case detective in Salt Lake City tells KATU that even with the billboard no new leads have come in.

However, since almost all of the 40 cold cases from unincorporated areas of Multnomah County are going up on billboards, there is certainly greater odds that the local billboards will turn up an arrestable lead. Indeed, some of these cold homicide cases have not been publicized in 20 to 25 years.

“We are confident that the billboard project will heighten community awareness," said Assistant Sheriff Dan Staton in a press release, "and encourage persons with knowledge of a case to come forward.”