John Jefferson
Left: Daniel Gore (Washington County District Attorney’s Office). Right: Milana Li (Beaverton Police Department).
An Oregon jury convicted a runaway teen who murdered and raped a 13-year-old girl after luring her to where he had been living in the woods — and where he also kept a shrine to a horrorcore rapper and a diary that professed his love for a fictional serial killer.
Daniel Ryan Gore, 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder, rape and sexual abuse in the 2022 death of 13-year-old Milana Li, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors told jurors that Gore was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who gave Milana a “false sense of security.”
Milana was last seen alive around 7:45 p.m. May 8, 2022. Her mother reported her missing the next day after returning home from her overnight shift at work and learning she had never showed up at school. The mother and one of her daughter’s friends went to a nearby wooded area in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland, where they found some of Milana’s clothes. They called police, who started searching the area.
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Cops quickly found the girl’s body half-submerged in a creek under a blanket. She had been strangled. Investigators discovered packaging related to the blanket in Gore’s tent. After identifying Gore, then 16, as a suspect, Beaverton police tracked him to a library two days after the slaying. He tried to escape out of an emergency exit but officers caught him.
Detectives later learned that the defendant had called his then-girlfriend the night of the murder and told her something bad had happened but he “took care of it.”
According to a courtroom report from the Oregonian newspaper, Gore had runaway from his home in Salem several months prior to the murder. He and Milana became friends and spent the night in question aimlessly riding a bus before he took her to the woods for their fatal encounter.
After the murder, Gore reportedly tried to establish an alibi by going to a friend’s house and sending Milana text messages. He also told several people that he and Milana went their separate ways earlier in the night. But surveillance video and cellphone data showed the pair had been together.
While processing the scene in and around Gore’s tent, investigators reportedly found an ode to the rapper 7XVN, who is known for his horrorcore music which touches on violent subjects like cannibalism. His latest track on YouTube is a song called “I Want to Eat Your Face.” Gore reportedly had etched in a tree symbols tied to the rapper along with a skull mask associated with him. Cops also reportedly found a diary with the phrase “I feel like Dexter,” referencing the fictional TV serial killer from the Showtime series “Dexter.” There were also searches on his phone about sexual assault.
But prosecutors said the killing wasn’t about his enjoyment of horrorcore rap.
“It was his choice to take a vulnerable girl who trusted him and followed him into the woods and act out his fantasy,” Senior Deputy District Attorney John Gerhard reportedly said during his closing argument.
Gore’s attorney J. Mark Lawrence tried to plant seeds of reasonable doubt into the minds of the jurors by noting cops did not find the victim’s DNA on his client’s clothing. There was DNA from an unidentified male on her clothes and underneath one of her fingernails.
“How could he possibly have raped and murdered her when there’s not a cell of DNA evidence on his person,” Lawrence reportedly said. “We know who the killer is — we have his DNA — we just have to find him.”
But the jury didn’t buy the defense argument and came back with a guilty verdict in less than 90 minutes, the Oregonian reported. Gore is set to be sentenced on Dec. 2.
As Law&Crime reported at the time of her death, the young girl’s grandmother mourned her passing and remembered her life in comments to Portland CBS affiliate KOIN.
“I never see her angry, she always smiled, ‘OK grandma, OK grandma,”” Lydia Li said. “Pain … this pain is not possible to describe, you have to go through this pain. I don’t want anybody to go through that.”
Lydia Li told the TV station that her granddaughter recently went through a growth spurt. On a shopping trip, Milana Li was happy enough to have new clothes that she chose a lone ensemble consisting of a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. But her family bought her more than that.
She died before she ever had a chance to wear them.
The victim left behind two siblings, including a younger sister.
“Milana was for her, mom, like, a second mom,” Lydia Li told KOIN. “She was taking care of her very well and Milana was a responsible girl.”
The victim attended Conestoga Middle School.
Beaverton police initially classified Li’s disappearance as a runaway case.
“The murder of Milana Li is deeply distressing for her family, friends and the entire community,” the Washington County Juvenile Department said in a press release. “Our hearts go out to Milana’s loved ones and everyone affected by her death.”
Washington County noted that Gore was on probation for numerous nonviolent offenses with the Juvenile Department at the time his victim was killed. “These charges included Theft 2, Arson 2 and Criminal Mischief 2,” the county noted.
The county went on to note that Gore was released on probation by a court after a series of “assessments.” But, the county said, officials were against his release from custody.
“It is these assessment findings, along with recommendations from the prosecution and the defense attorneys, that inform the court in setting the terms of probation,” the press release continued. “For Daniel Gore, these terms included releasing him to his home under the supervision of his parents. As reported by news media, prosecutors in this case recommended that the juvenile be held in detention and not released.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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