Skip to main content
Law enforcement in Jackson County, Ore., discovered an illegal marijuana grow this week on the property of one of two Oregon cannabis entrepreneurs found murdered in Houston earlier this year.
WW wrote about the two men, Dana Ryssdal and Jimmy Martin, in a Feb. 22 story. Police found the bodies five days apart, but believe both were shot to death in the townhome where authorities first found Ryssdal’s body. Authorities found with them 10 pounds of hash oil, 129 pounds of cannabis, and $36,000 in cash.
Both men had deep connections in the Oregon cannabis industry, and Martin was a part owner of Rogue Valley Cannabis, which operates three dispensaries in Southern Oregon. (Friends of Martin said he was trying to sell his share of the business; it’s unclear if he did.)
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says it obtained a search warrant shortly after the double homicide for the Jacksonville home, which Martin owned. Inside they found an indoor grow, 572 marijuana plants, 275 pounds of picked marijuana, and two guns.
Authorities arrested and booked one man believed to be connected to the operation, whom they identified as Baron Erik Munchausen. (It’s not clear if that’s a pseudonym, but Baron Munchausen is the name of a fictitious character in a German novel from the 1700s.)
As WW noted in last week’s story, oversupply of cannabis flower and federal prohibition have tempted some legal business owners into the black market.
Friends of Martin, 37, and Ryssdal, 35, described them both as big, fun-loving personalities. Ryssdal loved to travel and spent time in Las Vegas, Colorado and Washington. Martin had a young child.
It appears, based on social media, that their friendship extended back at least four years. It does not appear the two had a formal business partnership, based on business registry records.
“Dana’s superpower was making people feel seen,” Mike Reeves, a longtime friend and former business partner of Ryssdal’s, said earlier this month. “He was the guy in the room that everybody gravitated towards. He had a laugh that we’ll miss.”
Of Martin, friend and former business partner Richard Roth said: “He lit up every room he ever walked into. He was just as comfortable in a Fortune 500 CEO meeting as he was at a Biggie concert. "
