Mike Ellis lived in a 2,100 square foot, 7 bedroom house on SE Long St in Portland. There's a pool in the backyard, for pete's sake. He wasn't a transient. But thank you for jumping to conclusions.

Anymore details on this. Picture of the guy? Description of clothing? Time of death? I passed through the area pretty late and saw a young guy that didn't look like a transient. Might be of help.

I don't think he was homeless. This seems very suspicious to me. And you can find him on facebook for the person who asked for description.

Any information about Mike would be greatly appreciated by his family. Please call Detective Chris Traynor at (503) 823-0541 if you saw him. Thank you.

Really? Mike Ellis was one of my friends and he wasn't homeless. It's really disrespectful to make assumptions about people, especially someone who has just lost their life. I normally enjoy reading the Mercury, but this is a goddamn travesty of journalism and an insult to the memory of a good man.

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure Mike Ellis was homeless, which is why I phrased the sentence as: "Mike Ellis was just one of many people who sleep on the streets every night in Portland."

It was a forgone conclusion that he was asleep, though, at some point in the fountain. Sorry, that was my assumption and I'll add a note to the post clarifying that he might not have been sleeping there, but that his body wound up there somehow.

If you know anything about Mike that could help figure out what happened or who he was, feel free to post it here or email me privately at smirk@portlandmercury.com.

Thanks for your comments.

Don't worry, smirk. You're just another in a long line, using the deaths of people they don't know to try to further causes (right or wrong) that they believe in.

Sarah, in a short career of pretty questionable journalism, this is your god-damned worst piece ever. You not only did a slam-dunk on someone's reputation, but by conflating it with homelessness in winter, you managed to trivialize both stories.

I didn't know Mike, I have no clue how he died. But your own second graph states quite clearly that this is not a "homeless hypothermia" case. So the real question is...were you smoking crack when you posted? or are you just genetically wired for stupidity?

No shit, Smirk, this needs a hard-core retraction and apology, and you need a spanking. Matt Davis would be profoundly disappointed in you today.

Drunk probably. So sad.

And don't assume he was drunk either. It's common when people have hypothermia for them to feel hot; hence, taking clothes off and going into the fountain to "cool down". The key is, why did he catch hypothermia in the first place? Because I'll bet the fountain / lack of clothing came later.

Aren't all the fountains turned off for the winter?

My first thought on reading this, before I even got to the update/retraction, was that the homeless folks I've known through Outside In are pros at shit like this.

Regardless of the situation, Ellis's death is a shame. I hope his family can find some comfort and peace.

Hey, look! It's the Columbia Journalism Review on Blogtown!
Did Ms. Mirk "try to further the cause" of donating blankets and coats to the homeless? Wow, what kind of asshole would do such a thing?

Is this a good time to bring up the tone, content and comments from "Winter Death Blast 2010 is Almost Here!! PANIC!!! PANIC!!! PANIC ..." from the day before yesterday?

the two don't really compare? one was a satirical post and the other is an assumption-filled, poorly written piece of garbage (one that discusses the death of a specific individual) that, for whatever reason, has yet to be removed or corrected in detail by Ms. Mirk, who, by the way, needs that smirk smacked off her face -- figuratively, of course. hey, sarah, all you knew was that a partially-clothed young man was found deceased near a fountain downtown on a very cold morning, where'd all that other shit come from? you idiot. there are scores of other assumptions to which you could have come.

HaTerS gonna Hate...

>Did Ms. Mirk "try to further the cause" of donating blankets and coats to the homeless? Wow, what kind of asshole would do such a thing?

Nail, meet hammer.

Some of you are over-reacting, seriously.

This is a disgusting, thoughtless article that should be immediately retracted along with an apology to the family. I cannot imagine how the family felt reading this. My sincere sympathy and best wishes go to the family. Mike was a great kid - the world is now a worse place without him.

Just wanted to offer a quick correction. The Red Cross operates an emergency warming center at Imago Dei that is only open in the most severe weather. We aren't affiliated with the Downtown Chapel location.

The Red Cross center was open again last night and had about 156 guests (5 pets). If people are interested in getting involved as volunteers, they can visit www.oregonredcross.org/EWC.

Journalism and deaths don't get any worse than this.

Still no official correction? Really Mercury? I know it was close to Thanksgiving, but come on. Or how about even just a follow up? I mean a young gay guy is kicked out of a straight club for taking off his shirt while dancing and then freezes to death just a few blocks away. Seems like that's the type of story the Mercury would be all over.

i honestly can't believe this hasn't been removed yet.

this line: "Mike Ellis was just one of many people who sleep on the streets every night in Portland." should be reason enough for this lazy reporter to start looking for a new job.

sarah mirk, i hope you are truly ashamed at the flat out lies you told in this story and then failed to correct after you knew the truth. saying "well, his friends say he wasn't homeless" isn't a retraction.

Surprisingly, the O is still following this story:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s…

My feeling is that Ms. Mirk has made a mistake and the Mercury should simply remove the post and replace it with a description of the incident and a way for people to contact the police with information. An apology would be good too. The Mercury needs to keep in mind that many readers will not read far enough down to see the "clarification" and the comments by those who knew Michael. I met him at a party last summer and he was a very sweet and vibrant person. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

The outrage expressed in these comments is a good example of how the general public views the homeless population. Human garbage. If this article had mistakenly made the speculation that the departed was high school student or an elderly man, probably not a big deal. But a homeless person? How disgusting! How dare you!

Why are privileged white people so angry? The bitter hatred of Mark Ellis's friends makes me judge him far more harshly than his final resting place. How sad that this young man's memorial is becoming the cruelty and intolerance of those close to him.

(To sexmachinealpha) Why do you assume these responses are from "privileged white people?" And, Mike (not Mark) Ellis' friends are not bitterly hateful. They are loving, hurt human beings. Why do you feel the need to judge anyone?
I have not read anything else Sarah Mirk has written, but if you have read anything written on other sites reporting this event, you would see that many aspects of what Sarah has written ranges from insufficiently researched to grossly assumptive. And, she has connected this to an unrelated cause. Because of this, I am not likely to consider anything written by her as reliable information.
Unfortunately, it also casts doubt on the quality of other writers for the Portland Mercury, the Portland Mercury itself and, due to misstated statistical data, the cause to which she wanted to bring attention.
She wasn't the only person to jump to conclusions in the haste of "reporting" this event, but the attitude with which she has avoided taking full responsibility for her errors, unfortunately, compounds my negative impression.