Every one of the five people found dead at a rural Oregon property on Saturday, August 22, 2026, died of gunshot wounds, and the man investigators identified as their killer telephoned his mother to tell her the slayings were premeditated, authorities said on Tuesday, August 25.
At a news conference in Hillsboro, Ore., Detective Mark Povolny of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office walked through a detailed timeline of the killings. The gunman, he said, shot five people and five household pets, then tried to burn much of the evidence — and the property itself — to the ground.
Authorities identified the dead as Mary Elizabeth Kimsey, 85, of Portland; Rowan Karla Kimsey, 60, of Forest Grove; Stella Jade Kimsey, 26, also of Forest Grove; Linsey Mae Haraldsen, 26, of Portland; and Alvin Raymond Chu, 27, of Portland.
Family ties and friendship linked the five. The property sat just outside Forest Grove, roughly 25 miles west of Portland, and it belonged to Rowan Kimsey, who lived in one of the outbuildings there. The main home was shared by her daughter, Stella Kimsey, and her boyfriend, Benjamin Charles Parker, 36, whom investigators named as the suspect. Rowan was Mary Kimsey’s daughter, and Stella her granddaughter. Haraldsen and Stella Kimsey were best friends; Chu was Haraldsen’s partner.
A Predawn Call for Fire Crews
A neighbor dialed 911 just after 5 a.m. on Saturday, August 22, to report a fire. As Forest Grove Fire & Rescue crews headed out, that neighbor drove toward the glow and found a car fully engulfed in the driveway, unable to make out anything more through the flames and darkness.
Crews knocked down the car fire and a small brush fire, then came across a body, and then a second — both of them appearing to have been shot in the head, Povolny said. Firefighters radioed dispatch and pulled back just before 5:30 a.m., and the first deputy arrived in under four minutes. A team of sheriff’s deputies swept the sprawling rural parcel, dotted with sheds, outbuildings and other structures, and turned up all five bodies early on, clustered in or near the driveway by the main home.
Chu was inside the burned car, with Mary Kimsey on the ground just outside it. Stella Kimsey was in a second car parked in the driveway and Haraldsen on the ground nearby. Rowan Kimsey lay on the walkway near the driveway and the home.
More than one bullet struck Mary Kimsey, Rowan Kimsey, Stella Kimsey and Haraldsen, investigators said, and they suspect Chu died in the same manner. Evidence indicated a .22-caliber gun killed all five, and shell casings littered the ground around the bodies. The fire burned so intensely that investigators could not initially rule out that the body in the vehicle was Parker’s, so identifying the dead came first.
Separate Fires at Each Body
Torching the first car was not the end of it, authorities said. The suspect lit a separate fire at each of the other four bodies, and the car holding Stella Kimsey’s body was among the things he tried to burn. A carport and the main home were two more targets he failed to set ablaze. Tarps had covered the bodies on the ground before he lit the fires, and the melted material at first resembled duct tape, but investigators said no one had been taped, bound or moved.
Deputies found a dead dog and two dead cats inside the main home, plus an injured cat that was rushed for emergency veterinary care and humanely euthanized on Monday, August 24. A second dog lay dead toward the rear of the parcel. All five animals had been shot. The livestock kept there has since gone to new owners.
Suspect’s Body Found in Washington
A vehicle belonging to one of the victims, parked behind a Safeway store in Enumclaw, Wash., about 200 miles from the crime scene, held Parker’s body when he was found dead on Sunday, August 23. A gun was in his hand, and investigators said he had a gunshot wound to the head; the same .22-caliber handgun, they believe, was used.
His phone pinged repeatedly in Enumclaw, and the sheriff’s office tracked his cellphone there before turning to license-plate camera data. That data showed the vehicle entering the city five times and never leaving. No other weapons were in the car, Enumclaw police said, and Washington County investigators received the evidence collected there.
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
Detectives were preparing a warrant charging Parker with five counts of murder in the first degree when his 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. Three people were the number Parker told his mother he had intended to kill, the detective said, but two more died. Killing the animals, setting the fires and trying to burn down the property were also things Parker admitted to her.
The killings began as domestic violence, investigators said. Only hours before the shootings, phone records showed, Mary Kimsey had texted a friend about a fight between her granddaughter and Parker. “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. Stella Kimsey then stopped answering her phone, prompting Haraldsen to call Rowan Kimsey. Rowan Kimsey walked to the main home to check on her daughter and did not call back, and Haraldsen then drove to the property. Mary Kimsey picked up Chu and followed. At the news conference, Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton said domestic violence cases accounted for five of the county’s eight homicides so far in 2026.
A reason was the one thing Parker never gave his mother, and the investigation remained open as of the August 25 news conference. Investigators were weighing how much to disclose, the detective said, against preserving the dignity of the five people who were killed.
