Man Pleads Guilty to 1988 Killing

Renee Harvey had moved to Portland in the late 1980s, taking a job at the Special Olympics and hoping to be an actress, singer.

She was 25 and moved into a Southeast Portland apartment, just below a man named Walter Wayne Howard.

One day in 1988 she came home to discover that her apartment had been burglarized. Jewelry, a VCR, other items had been stolen.

She suspected Howard and was not afraid to tell the police.

She started looking for another place to live.

A couple of days later a friend found her. She was dead. Murdered.

While Howard was a suspect, there was not enough evidence to arrest him.

In 2012, a cold case detective reopened the investigation and submitted a bloody pillowcase for DNA testing.

It came back positive.

He was arrested in San Diego.

On Wednesday he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

He is expected to get 11 years in prison when he is sentenced March 30.