All five people found dead at a rural Oregon property on Saturday, August 22, 2026, were shot, and the man investigators identified as their killer told his mother in a phone call that the slayings were premeditated, authorities said on Tuesday, August 25.
Detective Mark Povolny of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office laid out a detailed timeline of the killings at a news conference in Hillsboro, Ore., describing a scene where the gunman not only shot five people and five household pets but tried to burn much of the evidence — and the property itself — to the ground.
Those killed were 85-year-old Mary Elizabeth Kimsey of Portland; 60-year-old Rowan Karla Kimsey of Forest Grove; 26-year-old Stella Jade Kimsey, also of Forest Grove; 26-year-old Linsey Mae Haraldsen of Portland; and 27-year-old Alvin Raymond Chu of Portland, according to authorities.
They were bound together by family and friendship. Rowan Kimsey owned the property, just outside Forest Grove and roughly 25 miles west of Portland, and lived in one of the outbuildings. Her daughter, Stella Kimsey, lived in the main home with her boyfriend, Benjamin Charles Parker, 36, whom investigators named as the suspect. Mary Kimsey was Rowan’s mother and Stella’s grandmother. Haraldsen was Stella Kimsey’s best friend, and Chu was Haraldsen’s partner.
A Fire Call Before Dawn
Just after 5 a.m. on Saturday, August 22, a neighbor dialed 911 to report a fire. As Forest Grove Fire & Rescue crews rolled out, the neighbor drove toward the glow and found a car fully engulfed in the driveway, unable to see anything more in the flames and darkness.
Firefighters knocked down the car fire and a small brush fire, then found a body. Then a second — both of them appearing to have been shot in the head, Povolny said. Crews notified dispatch and pulled back just before 5:30 a.m. The first deputy arrived in under four minutes. Sheriff’s deputies formed a team to sweep the sprawling rural parcel, which was dotted with sheds, outbuildings and other structures, and found all five bodies early in the search, clustered in or near the driveway by the main home.
Chu’s body was inside the burned car. Mary Kimsey lay on the ground outside it. Stella Kimsey was inside a second car parked in the driveway, with Haraldsen on the ground nearby. Rowan Kimsey was found on the walkway near the driveway and the home.
Investigators said Mary Kimsey, Rowan Kimsey, Stella Kimsey and Haraldsen were all struck by more than one bullet, and they suspect Chu died in the same manner. Evidence indicated all five were shot with a .22-caliber gun, and shell casings littered the ground around the bodies. Because of the intensity of the fire, investigators could not initially rule out that the body inside the burned vehicle was Parker’s, so they focused first on identifying the dead.
Fires Set at Each Body
Beyond torching the first car, the suspect set individual fires at each of the other four bodies, including an attempt to burn the car holding Stella Kimsey’s body, authorities said. He also tried and failed to set a carport and the main home ablaze. Tarps had been draped over the bodies on the ground before the fires were lit; the melted material initially resembled duct tape, but investigators said no one had been taped, bound or moved.
Inside the main home, deputies found a dead dog and two dead cats, along with an injured cat that was rushed for emergency veterinary care and humanely euthanized on Monday, August 24. Another dog was found dead toward the rear of the parcel. Every one of the five animals had been shot. The livestock kept there has since been placed with new owners.
Suspect Found Dead in Washington
Parker was found dead on Sunday, August 23, inside a vehicle belonging to one of the victims, parked behind a Safeway store in Enumclaw, Wash., about 200 miles from the crime scene. He had a gun in his hand and a gunshot wound to the head, investigators said, and they believe the same .22-caliber handgun was used.
The sheriff’s office had tracked his cellphone after it pinged repeatedly in Enumclaw, then turned to license-plate camera data, which showed the vehicle had entered the city five times and never left. Enumclaw police said no other weapons were in the car; evidence collected there was forwarded to Washington County investigators.
Phone records placed Parker at the property on Friday evening, August 21, and into the early hours of Saturday. At 4:42 a.m., his phone left the property, moving south toward Forest Grove and then east.
A Call From the Suspect’s Mother
As detectives prepared a warrant charging Parker with five counts of murder in the first degree, Parker’s mother telephoned one of them. Her son had called her the night before, she said, and confessed.
“He said he had been planning this for a while and that it was premeditated,” Povolny said. Parker told his mother he had intended to kill three people, according to the detective, but two more died. He also admitted killing the animals, setting the fires and trying to burn down the property.
Investigators said the killings began as domestic violence. Phone records showed that Mary Kimsey had texted a friend about a fight between her granddaughter and Parker only hours before the shootings. “Mary said Stella and Mr. Parker got into a horrible fight sometime during either Thursday evening or overnight into the early hours of Friday morning, and Stella told him he had to leave,” Povolny said. When Stella Kimsey stopped answering her phone, Haraldsen called Rowan Kimsey, who walked to the main home to check on her daughter and did not call back; Haraldsen then drove to the property, and Mary Kimsey picked up Chu and followed. Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton said at the news conference that five of the county’s eight homicides so far in 2026 had been domestic violence cases.
What Parker never gave his mother was a reason, and as of the August 25 news conference the investigation remained open. The detective said investigators were weighing how much to disclose against preserving the dignity of the five people who were killed.
