Trial ends in guilty verdict two years after murder of 13-year-old girl
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The trial involving the murder of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found in a Portland-area park over two years ago has ended in the guilty verdict on Friday, according to court records.
Daniel Gore, the suspect in the death of Milana Li, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse. The now-18-year-old defendant was found guilty on all counts.
Prosecutors described Gore to the jury as "a wolf in sheep's clothing as he lured Milana into a false sense of security before he brutally raped and killed her in a wooded area," on May 8, 2022, the Washington County District Attorney's Office said in a release.
Li’s mother reported her missing the following day after coming home from a night shift, with her daughter not home as expected. She didn't show up to school, either.
Li's friend thought to look for her in a wooded area she was known to visit every so often. The friend and Li's mother found her clothing and shoes and called the police.
After searching the area, the Beaverton Police Department found the teen’s body in a stream underneath a weighed-down blanket at Westside Linear Park — about a half-mile away from her apartment.
Gore was the last person seen with Li alive, according to surveillance footage and cell phone data taken from the night of the murder. Gore's tent near Progress Ridge also had packaging straps linked to the blanket. Investigators said Gore was linked to DNA evidence left inside his victim, too.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled Li’s death a homicide.
Washington County announced that Gore had been charged with her murder nearly two weeks after the incident. Although Gore was 16 years old at the time of Li’s death, a judge determined in July 2023 the juvenile would be tried as an adult.
According to court documents, Gore had been living alone in a tent in a wooded area near Beaverton’s Progress Ridge shopping complex. Previously released court documents cited Gore’s “obsession” with rapper 7xvn, “who wears a signature white mask with a hand-drawn smile and whose lyrics romanticize violent acts including murder and strangulation.”
Gore is scheduled to be sentenced on the afternoon of Dec. 2.
Stay with KOIN 6 News as we continue to follow this story.