Five people found dead alongside multiple slaughtered pets on a rural Oregon property Saturday have been identified as the suspect’s girlfriend, her family members and two friends, authorities said.
The suspected killer, 36-year-old Benjamin Charles Parker, was later found dead of an apparent suicide inside a vehicle in Enumclaw, Washington — more than 180 miles from the secluded Forest Grove property where investigators say he killed three generations of his girlfriend’s family, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
The victims were Parker’s girlfriend, 26-year-old Stella Jade Kimsey; her mother, 60-year-old Rowan Karla Kimsey; and her grandmother, 85-year-old Mary Elizabeth Kimsey, police said.
Also killed were Stella Kimsey’s best friend, 26-year-old Linsey Mae Haraldsen, and Haraldsen’s partner, 27-year-old Alvin Raymond Chu.
Rowan Kimsey owned the property and lived there with her daughter, Stella, and Parker, who was Stella’s boyfriend, investigators said.
Authorities also discovered two dead cats and dogs on the property. Another cat was found alive and taken to a veterinarian, but it was later euthanized “due to the extent of its injuries,” police said.
Officials have not disclosed how the five victims or the animals were killed. Investigators have also not released a possible motive for the killings.
The horrific scene came to light after firefighters were called to a reported vehicle fire on the 15-acre property, which includes a home, farmland and dense wooded areas, according to police and local outlet KGW8.
“We do have a deceased victim up here we’re gonna need law enforcement,” a firefighter said in dispatch audio obtained by the outlet.
“I need a police unit or a sheriff’s office unit code for you to see just in case we have two victims here,” the dispatch audio said.
“This is some suspicious circumstances certainly so we’re gonna … just take our hoses and get out of here and let the sheriff’s office clear this. Then we’ll return,” the audio continued.
After detectives arrived at the quintuple homicide scene, they tracked Parker’s vehicle to behind a Safeway store in Enumclaw, where the killer was found dead of an apparent suicide.
Enumclaw Police Chief Tim Floyd said detectives discovered that Parker’s cell phone had pinged in the small city 50 miles southwest of Seattle, the outlet reported.
“They called us and said, ‘We have a cell phone ping in your city,’ here’s the plate and the car that you’re looking for,’” Floyd said.
“So we go to the flock system, we put the plate in, we could see that he’s hit a couple of our cameras and the last hit was him coming into the city and he had not left so we had a good indication that he was still here.”
Washington County Detective Shannon Wilde said in a press conference on Sunday that investigators do not believe that the killings were a “random act.”
Sheriff Caprice Massey added that the crime scene was one of the most “complex” she’s encountered in her career.
“In my 22 years here, I have not been a part of or witnessed a scene quite this complex involving this type of an investigation,” Massey told reporters on Sunday.
“I recognize that this incident is deeply concerning to our community. Our investigators are working to determine what happened, and we have dedicated every available resource to this case,” Massey said.
In a statement, Forest Grove Fire and Rescue described the slain victims as “our friends and our neighbors.”
“Tragedies like our community experienced over the weekend are incredibly sad, while also being so hard on our hearts and souls. Even though many of you did not know the vibrant lives so needlessly lost, some of you most certainly did,” the department wrote on Facebook.
“While others still undoubtedly moved past them in a local grocery store, restaurant, or our otherwise normal day to day lives. These were our friends, and our neighbors, and they too called this beautiful place home.”
