Four Bodies Found in Oregon State Forest
tiny dancer
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
TILLAMOOK, Ore. (AP) - The bodies of a mother and her three children were
found in a remote area of the Tillamook State Forest and police were looking
for the father, authorities said Sunday.
The case was being investigated as a homicide, though the causes of death
had not been determined and authorities had not ruled out a murder-suicide,
Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson said.
Rene'E Morris, 31, and her children, Bryant, 10 Alexis, 8 and 4-year-old
Jonathan had been reported missing Saturday from their Portland home,
Anderson said.
He said police are looking for Morris's 37-year-old husband, who was last
seen with the family leaving Portland in a minivan.
Anderson characterized the husband as a ``person of interest,'' but did not
rule out the possibility that he was also a victim.
``We're expanding the grid search to see if there are more victims. I hope
to heck this is it, but we just don't know,'' Anderson said.
Two hunters in the northwestern Oregon forest found the first body Saturday
morning on a remote road about 30 miles east of Tillamook.
State Police investigators later found the other three bodies in the same
general area. Authorities searched the area until dark Saturday and resumed
at dawn Sunday.
``There is a lot of evidence at the scene, but I can't go into that right
now,'' Anderson said.
He said the sheriff's department is setting up a tip line to develop leads
and that the department had already received some calls.
The area where the bodies were found is covered with second growth timber
and underbrush, and is popular with dirt bikers, all-terrain-vehicle riders
and hunters.
Tillamook is on the Oregon coast, about 60 miles west of Portland.
Patty
I'd say families shouldn't go to Oregon for Christmas. Remember last
year it was Longo.
Patty (Tillamook is famous for its chedar cheese.)
tiny dancer
"Patty" <eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f0e77308.02122...@posting.google.com...
Yup, that was Oregon, wasn't it.........something in the water perhaps??
td
Patty
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_1222_tillamook_bodies.1615e090.html
Family found slain in Tillamook State Forest
12/22/2002
By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN,
KGW Channel 8 Portland
and Associated Press staff
The four bodies of a slain family found in the Tillamook State Forest
were identified late Sunday as a mother and her three children, and
police were looking for the father as a person of interest.
Renee Morris, 31; ten-year old Bryant Morris, eight-year-old Alexis
Morris and Jonathon Morris, 4, were found Saturday morning four miles
north of Oregon Hwy 6 on a spur road off of Drift Creek Road, said
Sheriff Todd Anderson.
Police are searching for Edward Paul Morris, 37, as a person of
interest in the crime. According to police, it's also possible he
could be a fifth victim.
Morris is described as 6-feet tall and weighing 200 lbs. Last time he
was seen, he had short brown hair and was clean-shaven. He reportedly
drives a grey 1993 Dodge Caravan with Oregon license plate WSH 171.
The van has two rear bumper stickers--one spells "Jesus" and the other
reads "Louis Palau," who is a Beaverton-based evangelist with a
worldwide following.
"It's a heinous crime. Tillamook County has never seen anything like
this before...our goal is to find out who did this," said Anderson
during a press conference Sunday.
The sheriff's office has set up a tip line and asks that anyone with
information call 503-815-3340.
The crime is being treated as a homicide, but Anderson said he could
not rule out a murder-suicide. He said a missing persons report on the
family was filed Saturday. The family lived in north Portland.
Hunters found the first body about 30 miles east of Tillamook in a
remote area off of Drift Creek Road. They called police, and when the
Oregon State Police Forensic Unit began processing the scene,
investigators found three more bodies in the same general area.
The state medical examiner will perform autopsies. In the meantime,
the forensic unit is expected to stay at the scene for at least
several days.
"There is a lot of evidence on the scene," said Anderson.
The area where the bodies were found is covered with second growth
timber and underbrush, and is popular with dirt bikers,
all-terrain-vehicle riders and hunters.
There is some logging in the area, which has grown over from the
Tillamook Burn forest fire in the 1930s in Oregon's coast range.
A year ago, another quadruple homicide at the Oregon coast drew
national attention when four bodies--also those of an adult female and
three young children--were discovered along the Oregon Coast.
The bodies of MaryJane and Madison Longo were pulled from Yaquina Bay
on Dec. 27, about a week after the bodies of Zachary and Sadie Longo
were found in a Waldport slough.
Accused family killer Christian Longo is scheduled to go on trial
March 10.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
Patty
12/23/02
BRENT HUNSBERGER and STUART TOMLINSON
The Oregonian
Authorities are searching for a Portland man whose wife and three
young children were found dead during the weekend in a hilly,
snow-swept thicket of Tillamook County forest.
Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson identified the woman as Renee
Lyn Morris, 31, of North Portland. Her body was found Saturday in a
thickly wooded area of the Tillamook State Forest, 30 miles east of
Tillamook and four miles off Oregon 6.
Her body lay within sight of her three children, Bryant Morris, 10,
Alexis Morris, 8, and Jonathan Morris, 4. A neighbor said Renee Morris
was about seven months' pregnant and had struggled with complications
that made it difficult for her to write Christmas cards.
Anderson said authorities are looking for Edward Paul Morris, 37, who
lived with Renee Morris and the children in the 9900 block of North
Syracuse Street in Portland.
Anderson called Morris "a person of interest" and described him as
6-feet tall and 200 pounds. A photo released by police shows him
sporting a thin beard, but he is now clean shaven, Anderson said.
"It's a heinous crime," Anderson said. "Tillamook County has never
seen anything like this before."
Anderson said Morris drives a gray, 1993 Dodge Caravan van, Oregon
plate WSH171. Its rear bumper apparently has two bumper stickers, one
saying "Jesus," the other "Luis Palau," an Oregon-based evangelist.
Neighbors and friends described the family as quiet, devout
churchgoers. Edward Morris started his own business earlier this year
called Cornerstone Total Maintenance Inc. in North Portland with
another man, Paul Gasperetti Jr., according to state records.
Investigators tied the deaths to the Morris family after Portland
police received a missing person's report on the entire family from an
unidentified source sometime Saturday. The report was broadcast
statewide about 5 p.m. Saturday.
Anderson declined to release the report or say who filed it, and
Portland Police Bureau spokesman Henry Groepper referred all questions
about the report to Anderson's department.
The discovery of the four family members and the search for the
children's father evoked memories of last Christmas, when another
quadruple homicide unfolded along the Oregon Coast.
On Dec. 19, 2001, the body of Zachery Longo, 4, was found floating
face down in Lint Slough in Waldport. Three days later, divers found
the body of his sister, Sadie, 3, under 9 feet of water near the
Oregon 34 bridge over the same slough.
Two days after Christmas, the body of their mother, MaryJane, and her
youngest child, Madison, 2, were found in suitcases in Yaquina Bay.
Christian Longo was eventually arrested three weeks later in Mexico
after a nationwide manhunt. He is scheduled to go on trial in March on
murder charges.
The case bore enough similarities to the Longo case that Tillamook
County authorities consulted with the Lincoln County sheriff's
department and District Attorney's Office on how they investigated the
Longo slayings, Anderson said.
"It's shocking," Anderson said. "Because of the similarities, it's
hard not to compare it to the Longo case."
The Morris family lived on a dead-end street of well-kept houses and
yards. Theirs was a one-story, white house decorated with a string of
clear Christmas tree lights lining the roof and small planters hanging
from the porch. On Sunday, the living room light remained on.
A neighbor of the Morris family, Pearl Borg, 85, said Renee Morris was
seven months' pregnant. The family homeschooled their children, she
said, and regularly attended St. Johns Wesleyan Church in North
Portland, where the children were supposed to appear in a Christmas
play Saturday evening.
Ruth Meske, who lives four houses away and delivers mail in the
neighborhood, said she last saw Renee Morris Tuesday or Wednesday
carrying groceries from her car into the house.
Two hours after the 4 p.m. announcement in which police named the
victims, a makeshift memorial appeared at the Syracuse Street house.
Three bouquets of flowers and a lighted candle had been placed by the
house. One card pictured an angel with wings in a field of flowers,
with the words "We love and miss you!" It named Renee, Bryant, Alexis
and Jonathan.
The Morris' bodies were discovered Saturday near a gravel spur road.
The spot was about a mile off Drift Creek Road, which branches off one
of the most remote stretches of the Wilson River Highway. The final
one-mile spur road was barely wide enough for police vehicles to drive
down.
Two hunters discovered Renee Morris' body at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday,
then drove 10 miles east to the Glenwood Park & Store on Oregon 6 and
phoned police.
"It's unbelievable," said Agnes Kateley, a clerk at the store. "This
is a small community." Police declined to identify the hunters, citing
the ongoing investigation.
After investigators from the Tillamook County sheriff's department,
surrounding cities and the Oregon State Police arrived on the scene,
they found the three children's bodies nearby, covered by snow.
Anderson wouldn't say how long the bodies had been in the area, which
had received snow for the past week. A light blanket coated the ground
near the crime scene.
He also declined to describe how Renee Morris and her children died or
to speculate on possible suspects or motives. "There is a lot of
evidence at the scene," Anderson said. "I can't go into that right
now."
Late Sunday afternoon, the bodies were transferred to the State
Medical Examiner's Office in Portland, an official there confirmed. An
autopsy is scheduled for today, authorities said.
Investigators are expected to continue scouring the crime scene, which
is popular with dirt bikers and hunters. Anderson said he has not
ruled out finding more bodies.
"What we're going to do in the next couple of days is expand that grid
search further," Anderson said.
The homicide investigation is Tillamook County's first in more than
two years. The county had two unrelated homicides in 2000, Anderson
said. In 1999, Larry Gene Cole kidnapped and shot two park rangers
near Oswald West State Park on the coast, killing Danny Blumenthal and
injuring John I. "Jack" Kerwin.
Brent Hunsberger: brenthu...@news.oregonian.com
Stuart Tomlinson: stuartt...@news.oregonian.com Reporters Jeffrey
Kosseff, Jason Begay, Andy Dworkin and Tracy Jan and researcher
Kathleen Blythe of The Oregonian contributed to this report.
Patty
12/23/02
JEFFREY KOSSEFF, JASON BEGAY and TRACY JAN
The Oregonian
From the outside, the Morris family of Portland's St. Johns
neighborhood looked like a family content with life and ready to
tackle the future.
The three children, Bryant, Alexis and Jonathan acted in church plays
and sported perfect behavior. The mother, Renee Morris, was expecting
another child and kept close friendships with fellow members of the
St. Johns Wesleyan Church. The father, Edward, built a swing set for
his children and helped elderly neighbors with yardwork.
But in the course of one weekend, the Morrises became the center of a
nationally publicized quadruple homicide case. The mother and three
children were found slain in rural Tillamook County. And the police
are looking for the father.
There were no overt signs of a troubled life, other than a bankruptcy
nearly a decade ago.
And the seemingly ordinary churchgoing family left little reason for
friends and neighbors to fear for the worst.
Close neighbors Since 1995, Edward Morris has owned the three-bedroom,
896-square-foot house valued at $108,410. He became the owner shortly
after the death of Arlene Ann Lowe, his mother and the home's previous
owner.
A neighbor of the Morris family, Pearl Borg, 85, said Renee Morris was
seven months' pregnant.
Borg said Edward Morris often helped her around her house, replacing
light bulbs so she didn't have to climb a ladder and mowing her lawn.
"Eddie was always busy, but he was always my handyman," she said.
Ten-year-old Bryant sometimes helped his dad mow. "I've never seen
kids work like they did," she said.
Borg said Oregon State Police told her not to open her door if Edward
Morris appears.
"I can't believe that," she said. "I just really can't."
Donna Babbitt, a neighbor, said she never spoke to the Morris family
but saw the kids through the back yard. Edward built them a wooden
swing set with a slide.
"They had darling little kids running around in the back yard," she
said. "I heard them out there laughing and talking with their little
kids."
Ruth Meske, who lives four houses away from the Morris home and is the
neighborhood's mail carrier, described Edward as "super nice."
Meske "never heard him yell at her or the kids," she said. "And the
kids never yelled. They were so well-behaved."
If their church had a fund-raiser, Meske said, "they'd come around."
Religious ties Religion was central to the family's life, friends and
neighbors say.
The fellow members of St. Johns Wesleyan Church, which is an outgrowth
of the Methodist faith, say they knew something was wrong Saturday
night when the three Morris children did not take part in the church's
youth Christmas play. The tight-knit churchgoers knew they had been
reported missing, said Clara Nelson, a church member, when contacted
by The Oregonian.
"We had more of a prayer concern than a play," she said.
A male voice on voice mail answering the Morris' phone number said:
"Thank you for calling the Morris family. We hope that the Lord is
blessing you today and we would ask that you would leave a message.
But we are probably just not able to get to the phone prior to the
voice mail picking up."
The family cars suggested a mix of the secular and the spiritual. A
white Dodge Trademan 300 van sat parked in front of the Morris house
Sunday evening. The rear of the van held tools; the roof held ladders.
Two straw hats and a red Bible sat on the dashboard. Behind the van
was a red Mercury Sable GS with a faded American flag taped inside the
left passenger window. The rear window held a flag with " 'Our Country
was Founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.' Patrick Henry 'Give me
liberty or give me death.' "
Business encounters It appeared that the Morrises have encountered
financial troubles in the past. In 1993, Edward and Renee filed
bankruptcy for themselves and a business, Sunrise Roofing, which was
listed as sharing their home address.
But Edward tried his hand at business again. Earlier this year, he
began a business called Cornerstone Total Maintenance as an authorized
representative of Cornerstone Total Maintenance Inc. in North
Portland, according to the Oregon Secretary of State's office. A woman
who said she is Paul Gasperetti Jr.'s wife confirmed that her husband
and Morris were business partners. She appeared very upset and would
not comment on the discovery of the bodies.
Early Sunday evening, she was leaving a home in a manufactured home
park on Hayden Island that is registered with the Oregon Secretary of
State's office as the business address for the maintenance firm. The
manufactured home had religious Christmas decorations and a lawn sign,
"Proud to Be An American," with an American flag.
Reporters Brent Hunsberger and Andy Dworkin and researcher Kathleen
Blythe of The Oregonian contributed to this story.