Portland authorities and media are reporting that a 6 feet 2 inches tall, 265-pound ‘female’ was involved in a savage broad daylight murder. Does the suspect have ties to the ‘Zizian’ transgender death cult?
According to jail records and local media reporting in Portland, Ore., a 41-year-old woman was arrested for a brutal broad daylight murder on July 18.
But an investigation by this journalist reveals that "Ashe Isador Sarethi," who is booked into a Multnomah County jail as a 6 feet 2 inches tall, 265-pound female, is actually the adopted name of a man previously known as Isaiah Edward Hall.
Ashe Isador Sarethi is the adopted name for trans person Isaiah Edward Hall
On Friday afternoon, police responded to a shooting outside a Safeway grocery store on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. A deceased man was found on the ground outside a vehicle in the parking lot. Hall was sitting in the vehicle, a white converted Lincoln County, Ore. School District van, in which he was living. What else was inside? A transgender flag.
The 41-year-old transgender-identifying suspect was taken into custody and has been charged with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
"Just a silly trans girl living her best life in a van down by the river," reads Hall's Instagram profile. But those who knew him describe Hall as an extremely aggressive man who was particularly violent to women.
Isaiah Hall's Instagram account
Catherine Hall, a 39-year-old woman in Homosassa, Fla., was married to Isaiah Hall from 2012 to 2021. She found out about her ex-husband's murder charge only through this journalist's media inquiry.
"It's almost like I wasn't surprised," she said. "He choked me a lot."
The two bounced between central Kentucky and central Florida for years, but their relationship quickly deteriorated after their wedding as he allegedly became increasingly violent. In 2013 or 2014, she said she left their marital home in Winchester, Ky. for several months to go live in a domestic violence shelter. She ultimately did not pursue charges against him and gave him another chance. But the violence continued.
Hall's adopted name, "Ashe Isador Sarethi," is the name of a female character he used in the The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind video game. He also used the aliases "Samuel Archer" and "Izzy."
Isaiah Hall worked as an engineer in Kentucky before becoming homeless and moving to Portland
Catherine said he never showed or expressed any indication he was transgender or gender dysphoric in their long relationship.
She said that even though he was formally trained in engineering, having experience operating the machines used to assemble electronic components for circuit boards, he was unmotivated to be employed. She said that he spent most of their marriage unemployed, being obsessed with internet forums, playing Magic the Gathering, collecting old computers and expressing left-wing political views. She said that he spent so much time online that he neglected basic self-care, like bathing and grooming, leading him to start losing his teeth.
Isaiah Hall's LinkedIn page
Catherine said that Hall attended left-wing protests and was involved in the Occupy movement in Kentucky. This is corroborated by posts he made on Reddit about his political activism.
She recalled that he was particularly anti-Christian and expressed immense hatred of Donald Trump.
"He was very much left," Catherine said, adding, "I didn't know anything about politics."
She continued: "He would rant [about politics]. That's when he would get mad and start to throw things and hit things, including me."
Catherine said she tolerated the physical abuse for five years until August 2017, when she feared for her life after a beating in Largo, Fla., where they had been living. "I remember when he grabbed my neck," she said. "There was no emotion, no soul in his body. Horrifying."
She said Hall bashed her head into a wall. She showed me a light mark on her forehead that she says was from that alleged abuse. "If I didn't call my brother that night, I don't know if I would be here today."
Catherine's brother, Scott Morris, a real estate agent in the Tampa area, backs up his sister's allegations. He said he drove immediately to their home and forced Hall to leave.
"He didn't know how to deal with masculinity when it confronted him," Morris said. Catherine claims Hall preferred to use his hulking, large height and frame to intimidate women. She said his first wife also told her she was a victim of domestic violence by Hall.
Catherine doesn't know what her ex-husband did in the years after their separation. It took nearly four years for her to finalize the divorce in 2021 because she couldn't find an address to serve him with legal papers.
Hall's online history may provide some clues as to what he had been up to since their separation.
In a 2016 engineer employee profile about Hall, it reads: "Isaiah is fascinated by artificial intelligence and believes that 'the Singularity is going to happen. In fact, it's highly likely within the coming decade.'"
Hall's life disturbingly mirrors some of the members of the ", whose geeky vegan members were mostly engineers obsessed with the idea of "the Singularity" before becoming allegedly homicidal and suicidal.
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"The Singularity" concept claims there is a point in the near future where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and can pose immense and catastrophic danger. The "Ziz" cult members, who hail from across the U.S. and Europe, cut off ties with their families to debate these ideas endlessly. Most of them became homeless, also living in a white van like Hall, and allegedly killed at least six people, in accordance with their beliefs.
There is no other evidence so far to suggest Hall was a member or associate of the group, however, despite their disturbing biographical and deep interest parallels.
A social media post showing the dead body and Isaiah Hall's white van outside the Safeway in northeast Portland
Catherine, who had not heard of the Zizians before the interview, says she vividly remembers her ex-husband being heavily focused on "the singularity."
"He explained that AI was going to be sentient, 'the singularity' was going to happen, and that we were all doomed," she recalled. "He was paranoid about it."
Catherine said the last time she saw him in person was the night in 2017 her brother gave him the ultimatum to leave after she was seriously battered. The Largo Police were called, but she later decided not to press charges since he had already left the home and made no contact with her.
Years later, Hall sent her a message around 2023 updating her on his life and telling her he was transgender, living in Portland and had a girlfriend who recently died. In retrospect, she's now extremely disturbed about the claim about the woman's death and regrets not inquiring about that. The next thing she heard about him two years later was that he allegedly murdered someone in cold blood. "That could have been me," she said.
Hall had worked on and off as an engineer for NetGain Technologies and QyberTek in Kentucky from 2017 until the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his LinkedIn. In 2022 he moved to Portland. His LinkedIn states that he was working as an SMT machine operator for LaunchNW. The Portland company did not return a request for comment.
"I was staying at a shelter in Kentucky back in July," Hall posted on Reddit in October 2022 using the name "desearcher." He continued: "Case manager said I could wait a year for a housing voucher or take a bus ticket. I joking [sic] mentioned Oregon. I now have an apartment in Portland."
In 2024, the city of Portland spent over $700 million on homeless services — tens of thousands per person — only for the number of homeless people to increase.
Isaiah Hall displayed transgender and nonbinary flags inside the van he was living in
On Reddit, Hall also posted about doing dangerous mental mind experiments, something the Zizians were also involved in.
"I once tried rubbing two opposing thoughts together in my mind and it felt like sparks, which made me curious to see what would happen if I forced them together," he wrote in 2022. "It induced a seizure. If you have this ability, experiment at your own risk."
In another Reddit post in 2023, he claimed his gender dysphoria was making him delusional. "My mind was rejecting my body and creating phantom realities to escape into. I wasn't a person," Hall wrote. "Having started HRT [hormone replacement therapy] two months ago I have been cognitively present and actually taking care of myself and participating in living. It's saved my life."
Last Friday, the deceased male victim lay out in the open with a sheet covering him, feet poking out, for several hours while shoppers in the plaza walked by. It is unknown if the victim knew Hall.
"We won't be releasing anything additional at this time," a Portland Police spokesperson told The Post Millennial. "Once we get approval from the Medical Examiner and we ensure family is notified, we will release the name of the victim and cause and manner of death."
Update July 25, 2025: The PPB has named the homicide victim as 42-year-old Jasen E. Fitzsimmons. Catherine Hall does not recognize the name or photo of the victim.
Homocide victim Jasen Fitzsimmons
In late January this year, Hall launched a GoFundMe to support his homeless lifestyle. "I've been living out of a van since I lost access to housing back in August," he wrote. There were only three donations: All are anonymous, and two are $2,000 each, bringing in a total of $4,020.
Catherine believes the fundraiser may be fraud on the part of Hall. In the campaign, Hall writes that he's been told by his neurologist not to return to work "until after my brain tumor is removed, which I don't yet have a surgery date for." Catherine says he had a small brain tumor removed in 2013 or 2014 in Lexington, Ky., and that she helped him in his recovery. She doesn't believe he has a new brain tumor.
Isaiah Hall's GoFundMe campaign says he hasn't had surgery yet for a brain tumor, but his ex-wife says the surgery happened successfully in 2013 or 2014
Catherine and her brother were reluctant to speak out, but felt they had an obligation to do so upon learning about the homicide. They're also worried about any women who may be put in physical proximity to Hall while he is in detention. They were horrified to learn that Oregon jails place male criminal suspects in women's sections if they identify as female.
Asked about the custody conditions for "Ashe Sarethi," the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office directed this journalist to look at the online inmate booking. "Sarethi" is booked as "female."
On July 21, Hall was denied bail at a court hearing. His arraignment is scheduled for July 29.