Suspect in Oregon quintuple homicide investigation found dead: police

A suspect in a quintuple homicide and the deaths of several animals — whose bodies were discovered in rural Oregon — was found dead in a vehicle in Washington state, police said.

Washington County Sheriff’s Office detectives identified 36-year-old Benjamin Charles Parker as the suspect in the homicide investigation. Authorities believe Parker died by suicide, police said in a statement Sunday.

Officers from the Enumclaw Police Department located Parker’s vehicle and found him deceased inside.

The remains of five people were found early Saturday morning when police responded to a call for a fire on a rural Oregon property in Forest Grove, a rural enclave west of Portland, and are still being identified, Washington County Detective Shannon Wilde said at a news conference over the weekend, without providing details on what was on fire or where the remains were located.

The alleged homicides are not believed to be “a random act,” she added.

“We are still working to determine who the people are and what their connection may be,” Wilde also told reporters, adding that information about the identities of the domestic animals was not available.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation with support from the Washington County Major Crimes team and several other teams from numerous agencies, in what Wilde described as a “complex investigation” across a large scene, of which she was unable to provide many details.

“In general, homicide investigations are extremely complex; they consume a lot of resources, and any time you have one person deceased, let alone five, that’s a logistical challenge,” Wilde said, noting that forensics teams, the medical examiner’s office, and animal services were among those involved in the investigation. The FBI are not involved, Wilde added.

Washington County Sheriff Caprice Massey said during the press conference that in her 22 years as a law enforcement officer, she had not witnessed a scene “quite this complex,” adding that she recognizes the incident is deeply concerning to the community, before inviting people with information to contact investigators through their non-emergency line.

The site of the the investigation was described by Wilde as rural, with lots of land, hills, vegetation and forest. She could not confirm if the victims lived on the property where they were found.

“We are learning more information every minute,” Wilde said, adding that when there is information to release to the public, it will be shared, and there was no reason to believe there were any additional victims.

There is no threat to the public, according to the sheriff’s office, and no arrests have been made.

Forest Grove is about 25 miles west of Portland, Ore., and 190 miles southwest of Enumclaw, Wash., where the suspect was found dead.

Washington County is home to over 600,000 people, according to the U.S Census Bureau .