Oregon School District Employee Suspected in Happy Valley Triple Homicide Found Dead at Coastal Motel
In Happy Valley, a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, about 10 miles southeast of Portland, police responding to a welfare check for a missing person entered a home on SE Highpointe Street around 12:30 p.m. on October 20 and found three people shot to death. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said the three died as a result of homicidal violence. On October 22, the sheriff's office identified the victims as Katie Kinder, 47, her 15-year-old son Evan Kinder, and Patricia Campbell, 78, members of one family.
The suspect, Edward Villa, 45, worked as a student and community engagement specialist for the North Clackamas School District, where he had been employed since 2007. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, officers located Villa on October 21 at a motel in Hammond, a coastal town about 100 miles from Happy Valley. According to reports, US Marshals attempted to contact him, and after receiving no response deployed tear gas and munitions before sending in a drone, which found Villa dead inside the room; no shots were fired by officers at the scene. His cause of death remains under investigation, and it is not yet clear whether he died by suicide. The motive is also under investigation.
The school district emailed parents around 12:20 p.m. on October 21 confirming Villa was a current employee who was absent from work, and relaying law enforcement's assurance that there was no threat to schools or facilities. Later that day the district informed families that Villa had died.
Clackamas County Sheriff James Rhodes said a suspect was identified, tracked and located a little more than 24 hours after officers arrived on scene, calling the loss of three lives heartbreaking. Police have not said what relationship, if any, Villa had with the victims.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，作者 Gary Halvorson / Oregon State Archives，CC BY 4.0（Clackamas 县法院） / Photo: Wikimedia Commons, by Gary Halvorson / Oregon State Archives, CC BY 4.0 (Clackamas County Courthouse)
