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In 1994, Kyle Hedquist executed 19-year-old Nikki Thrasher. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
But that did not stop far-left Democrat Kate Brown, the former Governor of Oregon, from granting Hedquist clemency in 2022.
Now Hedquist’s reappointment to the police review board is sparking widespread outrage.
Hedquist was first appointed to the board in 2024.
Despite initially voting to reappoint Hedquist, Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke is now calling on the city council to revisit the issue in January.
Salem Business Journal notes that Salem Police Employees Union President Scotty Nowning said, “the controversy is as much about the city’s guardrails as it is about Hedquist.”
“This isn’t even necessarily about Mr. Hedquist,” Nowning said. “Because if you move him off there, if you don’t change your guardrails … you could just put someone else on there with equal criminal history or worse.”
Per the Statesman Journal:
Nordyke, who is running against Mayor Julie Hoy, originally voted in favor of Hedquist’s reappointment, but said he should be removed from public safety boards after hearing from the Salem Police and Salem Fire unions. She is calling on council to revisit the issue Jan. 12.
“The police and firefighter unions each raised legitimate concerns that I hadn’t fully considered,” Nordyke said in a statement. “After weighing this new information, I realized I should have sought broader input before the vote.”
This is Kyle Hedquist
1994: KiIIed a 19-year-old girI
2022: Gov. Brown (D-OR) freed him
2025: Named to Salem’s safety board pic.twitter.com/WFb0aB4fBc— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 30, 2025
A 2022 letter from the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office opposing clemency details the horrendous crime.
“On November 24, 1994, Kyle Hedquist and one of his friends, Jonathan Timmons, stole a number of items from the home of Hedquist’s aunt, Cheryl Briggs, while she was away for Thanksgiving. Hedquist and Timmons took the stolen items and stashed them at the apartment of Timmon’s girlfriend, Misty Dalton. Nikki Thrasher, the teenager Hedquist would murder a few days later, was roommates with Ms. Dalton. Ms. Thrasher was completely unaware of the burglary.
On the morning of November 27, 1994, Ms. Thrasher saw some of the stolen items and asked Hedquist about them. Hedquist, concerned that Ms. Thrasher might find out the items were stolen and report him, decided he had to kill Ms. Thrasher to keep that from happening.
Hedquist lied and told Ms. Thrasher that one of her friends had left a message wanting to meet her on a hill to the west of the Melrose area. Hedquist then offered to drive Ms. Thrasher out to the meeting place. When they arrived at the bottom of a mountain road near the location Hedquist pulled out a pistol and told Ms. Thrasher that he was going to kill her. Hedquist then forced Ms. Thrasher to walk up the dirt road so he could find the most appropriate place to kill her.
After walking, some distance Ms. Thrasher began hyperventilating and Hedquist, frustrated with Ms. Thrasher’s inability to continue walking, raised his pistol and shot Ms. Thrasher in the back of the head.
Hedquist then grabbed Ms. Thrasher’s lifeless body and dumped it in a less conspicuous place on the roadside.”
The post Outrage Over Man’s Reappointment to Police Review Board After Life Sentence For Executing Teen Girl Was Commuted By Democrat Governor appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.