The ticket formed one link in a chain of video, phone and financial evidence that ended with a life sentence.
OREGON CITY, Ore. — Four days after Catherine Grace Crosse was killed in her Wilsonville RV, a $400.05 video lottery ticket she had not yet redeemed was cashed by the last known visitor to leave her home, according to prosecutors.
That transaction became one of the clearest dated links in the murder investigation against Jason David Perillo. Authorities said Crosse had discussed the winning ticket in a text message on Dec. 28, 2024. She was killed Dec. 31, and the ticket was missing when detectives searched the RV. Perillo redeemed it four days later, the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office said. Investigators combined that discovery with surveillance recordings, phone data, missing cash and spending they considered unusual. Perillo, 51, ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced June 25 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
The lottery ticket did not stand alone as proof of what happened inside the RV. Instead, it gave investigators a trackable piece of property tied to Crosse shortly before her death. Prosecutors have not released the redemption receipt, video from the lottery location or other records showing how the transaction was documented. They also have not said whether Perillo offered an explanation for having the ticket. The public account establishes only that Crosse won it, referred to it in a message, had not cashed it, and that Perillo redeemed it after she was killed.
Detectives had already begun building a timeline around Perillo’s visit to the RV. Prosecutors said Crosse and a companion sold small quantities of fentanyl and cocaine and that Perillo was one of their customers. He arrived on New Year’s Eve to purchase controlled substances. Phone records and surveillance video indicated Crosse was alive when he went inside. Roughly two hours later, the video showed Perillo leaving the RV alone and carrying items from within. Authorities have not said whether any camera recorded the interior or whether the footage showed exactly what he carried.
The two-hour gap became the central window in the investigation. The district attorney’s office did not identify anyone else as entering the RV during that period or announce evidence that Crosse communicated with another person after Perillo arrived. Nor did it release an exact estimated time of death. The prosecution’s final summary instead placed the video and phone evidence together: Crosse was alive at the start of Perillo’s visit, and he was shown departing with property before she was found dead. The guilty plea eliminated the need for prosecutors to present that reconstruction to a jury and defend each inference at trial.
Crosse’s companion became concerned when she did not answer later calls or messages. He asked a friend to check on her, and the friend found her dead and called 911. Prosecutors said Crosse had been stabbed approximately 30 times, including many wounds to her head and neck. Authorities have not publicly identified the friend, described what that person observed beyond finding the body or released the precise time of the emergency call. They have also not disclosed whether a weapon was recovered. The killing was described in restrained terms in official releases, with the focus placed on the evidence that followed.
One branch of that evidence concerned $6,750. Crosse and her companion had discussed in text messages how they planned to spend money they had accumulated, prosecutors said. Detectives did not locate the cash during their search. The district attorney’s office did not specify where Crosse had kept it or whether investigators could verify that the full amount was physically inside the RV on Dec. 31. The messages nevertheless showed that she and her companion believed they had the money shortly before her death, giving investigators another missing asset to compare with Perillo’s conduct afterward.
Prosecutors said Perillo had no steady or dependable income, yet he soon purchased a truck for $2,000 and gave $1,000 to his wife. Those transactions drew attention because of their timing and because cash was missing from the RV. The government’s public statement did not say whether serial numbers, bank withdrawals, witness testimony or purchase documents tied Crosse’s money directly to either payment. It also did not allege that Perillo’s wife knew the source of the $1,000. The spending evidence was therefore circumstantial, unlike the lottery ticket, which authorities said was specifically identifiable as Crosse’s winning ticket.
The difference between those two kinds of proof helps explain why the ticket became the case’s most distinctive detail. Cash generally carries no owner’s name and can be difficult to trace once it changes hands. A lottery ticket, however, is linked to a particular wager, result and redemption. Crosse’s text message established her prior possession, according to prosecutors, while the later transaction placed that same asset with Perillo. The official account does not say whether the ticket’s value was a motive for the killing. At $400.05, it was also far smaller than the $6,750 investigators believed was missing.
Detectives did not arrest Perillo immediately. The killing occurred Dec. 31, 2024, and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, working with Wilsonville police, took him into custody in Salem on Feb. 7, 2025. When the district attorney announced his arraignment later that month, it said surveillance video had helped identify him. He was then accused of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. The initial release described Crosse and Perillo as acquaintances but did not yet publicly connect him to the lottery ticket or lay out the financial evidence later included in the sentencing account.
The case ended without a public trial. Perillo pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, while the district attorney’s sentencing announcement did not list convictions for the first-degree murder or robbery counts included at arraignment. Officials did not release the written plea agreement or explain which facts Perillo admitted in court beyond the murder conviction. A guilty plea ordinarily removes the need for jurors to decide whether the government has proved the charge beyond a reasonable doubt, but it can also leave evidence untested in open court and limit the amount of testimony available to the public.
Oregon’s second-degree murder statute required the judge to impose life imprisonment. The law establishes a 25-year minimum during which an adult offender cannot be paroled or released to post-prison supervision. Perillo’s sentence therefore was not a discretionary term of a few decades followed by automatic release. He must first complete the minimum period, and any later possibility of parole would depend on the state’s review procedures. The prosecution’s announcement did not provide the exact date on which he could first be considered or explain how his pretrial custody would be calculated.
The district attorney’s office praised the work of sheriff’s detectives and identified Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owen and Senior Deputy District Attorney Stacey Borgman as the prosecutors. It did not release comments from Crosse’s family, identify her companion or discuss how the killing affected those close to her. Most of the public narrative instead came through records: a surveillance timeline, unanswered messages, texts about money, a missing ticket and a redemption four days later. Together, officials said, those records supported a prosecution that began with several serious charges and concluded with Perillo’s admission to second-degree murder.
The lottery ticket was worth only a fraction of the money investigators said disappeared, but its traceable path provided a concrete connection between Crosse’s possessions and the man who admitted killing her. Questions not answered in the public releases include what prompted the attack, what became of the remaining cash and whether any other missing property was recovered. Perillo will remain imprisoned under the life sentence, and no further trial is scheduled.
Author note: Last updated July 23, 2026.