Here at Avahai Sholom Cemetery is the grave of Rebecca Schaeffer, a young actress of the 1980s.  She started off as a teen model before playing the role of Patricia "Patti" Russell in the comedy My Sister Sam which aired from 1986 to 1988.  She also starred in a couple films. 

Tragically, she was murdered by a deranged fan named Robert John Bardo on July 18, 1989.  Bardo had obsessions with a number of famous young women of the time & stumbled upon Schaeffer, to which he wrote her many letters including a postcard where she even responded.  His mood changed when he saw her appear in a sex scene on Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, to which his disgust of her prompted him to visit her address in Los Angeles.  He had found her address after hiring a private detective who obtained her info from California DMV.  When Bardo encountered Schaeffer, he stated that he was a big fan & after initially being cordial, she turned him away & he returned an hour later & shot her in the chest where she screamed "Why, why!" before she would die.  Bardo would later be arrested in Tucson, Arizona walking aimlessely in traffic, currently serving life in prison without parole.

Being an Oregon native, she was buried here in Portland, Oregon.  Her death later spurned the passage of the 1994 Driver's Privacy Protection Act which prevents DMV from releasing private addresses (unfortunately this act fails to stop leaked information across the Internet).  Her death also helped initiate the passing of America's first anti-stalking laws starting in 1990.

This primarily Jewish cemetery is uniquely different than other nearby cemeteries.  Many headstones have a separate marker indicating a Holocaust survivor.