Just a few minutes ago, police released this sketch of
the woman whose body was found in Washington Park.
Investigators don't know who she is, but they do think
she was murdered, and they're asking
for your help in identifying her.
[man] On July 10th, a maintenance worker told
officers he found Niki Powell's body lying badly
decomposing on her bed.
Once homicide detectives searched the apartment,
they found a shoelace wrapped around Niki's neck.
The medical examiner says Niki likely died
within 3 to 5 minutes.
[theme music playing]
[man] The thing inside of me, it's like...
the appetite.
It's like a wolf that's...
feeling the hunger.
[man] The body of Nikala Powell was found in
Southeast Portland in her apartment.
Her family says Nikala was a harmless young woman
who loved her job helping homeless people get back
on their feet.
Detectives say Beebout quickly became a person of interest
in the case when they started
looking into activity on Niki's debit card.
Investigators say these photos show Beebout pulling out money
from Niki's account or using her Oregon Trail food card.
They say he did so in southeast Portland, on the coast,
in California, and eventually, in Seattle.
That's where a fugitive task force arrested Beebout
driving Niki's car.
Police say he had her dog and debit card on him
when he was arrested.
The telling thing about Beebout's choice of words,
to say it's smoke and mirrors, is him kind of admitting that
he puts on a persona, that he's a bit of a chameleon,
and he's able to
convince people of what he wants them to think of him.
It's what we want you to see, but it's not really what is.
[detective] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We're starting to see Beebout being squirmy, acting sort of
indifferent about this sex act.
And that's pretty on par for the course for sex offenders.
They tend to have this background where they have
very little social skills and low self-confidence,
and they have a hard time interacting with
and having sexual relations with
same-age peers, which is why they seek out usually
younger, more vulnerable victims to take that control over that.
Beebout enjoys being in control of this interview.
And certainly, inviting an attorney into the room would
be him giving up any control over the narrative.
So ultimately, for his own sort of ego, he would rather keep
control of the narrative and stay in the room, even if
it means, ultimately, that he might say things which
are gonna be self-incriminating.
The thing that's difficult about this portion of Beebout's
interview is that it could be that this was all in his head
and possibly a fantasy that Beebout has developed, which is
that he's in some kind of a dating relationship
with this woman, and he goes on to tell detectives how
he thought things were going really well between them.
But what he also then goes on to talk about is that Niki was
embarrassed by him.
What is clear is that his narcissism is offended at
this point.
And that likely was the powder keg that kicked off the crime.
[Alexander] Many individuals like Beebout have a very fragile ego,
and it takes very little to damage that fragile ego.
In many ways, like many psychopaths, he feels that
he needs to put up a front, kind of like the Wizard of Oz.
A small man needs to project a big image, and anything that
damages his core identity evokes murderous rage.
[Nameeta] Beebout is talking about his pattern as a person,
and nothing about it adds up to his history.
None of it's consistent with his history, except one thing
he says, that nothing bothers him.
It's like water off a duck's back.
That part might actually be true.
He doesn't get aroused or bothered by things with
other people the way the rest of us do,
because he's not invested in people.
He is not able to tolerate that transition from being in
control, telling this nice story, to suddenly being
a rapist, to carrying these labels which society recognizes
as being very pejorative. He is getting angry.
He doesn't want to be called that.
The fact that he took Niki Powell's dog after
he killed her,
and then he goes on a little further and said that he was
just worried about what was gonna happen to the dog.
But you don't hear him talking about Niki Powell in
the same vein -- very opposite.
So you can see here clearly that he dehumanizes people.
[woman] Now, Beebout is accused of killing 32-year-old
Nikala Powell, a local homeless outreach worker.
Police arrested Beebout for that crime in Seattle last month.
Investigators now say they found DNA evidence that
also links him to the woman whose body was found
in the park.
Oregon State Police Crime Lab was able to definitively
determine DNA linked the two.
At this point, we don't know of any more victims,
but certainly, we want to hear from anyone who has any
information about Mark Beebout.
[woman] This story developing just before news time,
KOIN Local 6 News has confirmed,
accused serial killer, Mark Beebout,
has agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors.
Beebout is accused of killing two women in the Portland area,
32-year-old Niki Powell, who befriended Beebout at
a church outreach program, and a teenage runaway from
California, whose body was found in Washington Park last year.
[speaking indistinctly]
He's got an appetite for sex and violence.
The appetite for sex is a much easier
one for him to pursue.
In fact, that's the kind of lead in to both of these
murders is convincing a young woman to spend time with him,
and in that context, assaulting her sexually
and then killing her.
And I think that the choice of where he finds these victims is
very telling, too.
He's purposefully going to environments where there's
either gonna be young, lost women who are homeless or being
in an environment where caregivers are drawn
to these individuals because they wanna help them.
And that's where he finds his prey.
Beebout's ability to pivot away from the facts that he just
raped and murdered Mayra and left her for dead,
and only the next day, escapes town, meets Niki, and goes on
about his life as if nothing has happened,
and the fact that he's able to do this is part and parcel of
that dangerous chameleon trait that we see in
psychopathic individuals.
And it's also part of their disconnectedness from
the emotions of what they've done.