Man, two children-murder suicide-Hillsboro, Or

[SuziQ]

Sigh, another casualty of whatever the heck is going on in our country.

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_052909_news_hillsboro_murder_suicide.2c77b87c. html

(snip)
It's appears to be a case of murder - suicide and it appears the defenseless children were killed by a man who may very well have been their father.

[AmandaBrown23]

I cant see anything in life being so bad that you have to kill yourself and take the kids with you. So sad.

[Kat]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/bodies_of_man_two_children_fou.html

Saturday May 30, 2009, 3:44 PM

Updated: Police identify man, two children found dead in Hillsboro preserve

Two children and a man found dead Friday afternoon in an apparent murder-suicide at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve have been identified as Tyler Gumm, 7; his sister, Kylie Gumm, 6; and their father, James Gumm, 45, all of Hillsboro...

...The bodies were found "about a mile from the closest place where people can park," Rouches said. "There isn't a camping area nearby so it looks like they were shot early today."...

... Stan Hayes, who lives on a farm across from the preserve, said he heard two or three shots in succession about 11 a.m. ...

[Kimster]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31026741/

HILLSBORO, Ore. - A 45-year-old father found dead with his two children along an Oregon hiking trail is believed to have shot them before killing himself, police said.

The bodies were found at a nature preserve Friday. A medical examiner confirmed that all three were shot with a 9mm handgun. Authorities recovered such a gun from the site.

NBC News affiliate KGW identified the victims as James Gumm, 7-year-old son Tyler and 6-year-old daughter Kylie.

[elle1919]

Any word on the boys mother? Is she still around ? God bless these 2.

[ziggy]

Oh no. Not again.

Men are losing their minds. Makes me wonder what society has done to foster these events.

[teonspaleprincess]

RIP Tyler and Kylie, such a senseless tragedy. Their family is in my prayers.

[Kimster]

Still searching for more news! Hopefully Scandi will check in soon...this crime happened closer to her than me. This was not far from where the mom threw her kids off the bridge!

[ziggy]

Hmmm.. read the article. Divorce. Seems to be it for men. Having a loved one that has gone through one of the world's worst divorces (or is still going through it 3 and a half years later) I can see the overwhelming anxiety it can lead to. I just don't understand killing the kids.

Seems like women are killing their kids more for freedom and men for fear of losing everything. The breakdown of our morals and families is starting to provoke serious problems.

[elle1919]

Just re-read article, no mention of mom, said father thought to have emotional problems due to recent divorce. Heartbreaking. Children were so young one boy and one girl.

[Kimster]

<snipped>
Hillsboro police spokesman Lt. Michael Rouches told KGW news that based on interviews with the family, detectives believe Gumm had emotional issues linked to his divorce that may have led to the killings.

KGW said a public records search indicates divorce proceedings began in Tillamook County in 1992 but were never completed. The Gumms were granted a divorce in early 2008.

Rouches said Gumm apparently couldn't handle his family falling apart. Gumm was unemployed and had no criminal record.

Stan Hayes was working on a nearby farm when he said he heard rapid gunshots around 11 a.m. Friday.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523558,00.html

[Kimster]

Seems like an awful lot of time went by since the divorce was final in order to blame his actions on that!

[SuziQ]

There is a thread at the below link. I've asked the mods to combine. :)

Man, two children-murder suicide-Hillsboro, Or - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

[Kimster]

<snipped>

The investigation led detectives to believe the children had no idea they were about to be shot. They may have thought they were going on a dayhike, police said.

Lt. Michael Rouches, a spokesperson for the Hillsboro Police Department, called it the most heinous crime he'd seen in 16 years of law enforcement.


http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/oregon/stories/NW_053109ORN-hillsboro-murder-suicide-SW.35f6ca86.html

[Kimster]

There is a thread at the below link. I've asked the mods to combine. :)

Man, two children-murder suicide-Hillsboro, Or - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84710)

OH POO! I looked and didn't see it! When will I ever learn to use the searches around here better? LOL

Thanks SuziQ! :blowkiss:

[scandi]

Still searching for more news! Hopefully Scandi will check in soon...this crime happened closer to her than me. This was not far from where the mom threw her kids off the bridge!


Hi Kimster, There is very lilttle on the news about this sad case, your link and now this one from FOX {channel 12 here I believe}:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523558,00.html


My immediate thought is God Bless these children who were helpless in this situation.

Next, I am simply floored as to what is happening to our society and how it seems people who have some 'issues' in their life are resorting to murder and so many different types of crime.


I listened to Geraldo last night and he had a guest discuss why this is happening so often in our society right now. Here alone we have noticed on our forum the influx of cases of drastic consequence.

This guy said he believes it has something to do with the trauma of the economy we have been going thru for about 8 mos and how the effects have trickled down to the citizens. I have noticed allot of these new cases have perps who where unemployed at the time of their crime.

I hope it ends soon. Children especially have no defense. They are helpless IMO to protect themselves. :blowkiss:

[Kimster]

Scandi, I was just thinking that and I didn't even watch Geraldo last night! I have many friends who work at the school and they said the kids are in more trouble now too. They feel it is the stress of what's going on in their homes! I wish the media would address the stress going on and suggest people get together and help each other when they can...to reach out in these hard times to each other!!!

[PeteyGirl]

IMO it doesn't make a difference in culpability if the person is having "emotional problems" or grieving the loss of an intact family. I think it is a societal problem that we the onlookers to this tragedy even CONSIDER this stuff to have any relevance to the crime at all.

I want to reach out and choke the media and talking heads who insert these "thoughts" into the ongoing speculation and horror that happens after such murders. No criminal record my BUTT. Who cares? What are they THINKING when they go back and try and describe this idiot as a regular guy???? He was NOT, regular people don't DO this stuff!! These sorts of people are everywhere, in every walk of life, THAT'S why these crimes happen just about every day. This is every day crap with human beings. These criminals live next door and take your money at the bank. There's nothing special about them.

This idiot made a choice for himself, and his helpless children. People get divorced and families separate a hundred times a day. He brought about the ultimate punishment on his ex wife and then was too chickensh*t to live with the consequences. I hope his memory is shunned.

The "ills" of society that "cause" these idiots (male or female) to harm/kill their children have their beginnings in societies cherished beliefs . . . that we are not responsible for our behavior, when bad things happen, that we are entitled to act out and destroy because our lives are not what we want them to be. Then everyone sits around, after the fact, and speculates about what "caused" him to commit this unspeakable crime.

He was a human POS, one of the worst our society and race of beings has to offer. I would spit on his grave, not that he deserves to have one. I don't CARE what his justifications were.

That abortion doctor getting murdered in cold blood got my blood boiling today, I don't mean to attack any posters here, just expressing how I understand the situation to be :blowkiss:

[Kimster]

Petey, There is NO excuse for murder, IMO! AT ALL!!! And this man was just a weak POS! My point with Scandi was that we need to reach out...find the weak and get them strength if we can BEFORE their kids are hurt. And I'm not just talking about kids getting murdered.

[PeteyGirl]

Petey, There is NO excuse for murder, IMO! AT ALL!!! And this man was just a weak POS! My point with Scandi was that we need to reach out...find the weak and get them strength if we can BEFORE their kids are hurt. And I'm not just talking about kids getting murdered.

Oh I know, it never occurred to me you or anyone was making excuses for him.

As far as reaching out for the weak and give them strength before they resort to these crimes . . . well, I have no hope for that, unless we start with our babies, every single baby born in this society, and make sure they receive adequate parenting and nurture.

Do you see where this goes? Take it a few steps further and we have Brave New World.

I worked in adult psychiatry for 17 years. My own father is a life long psychiatric case -- not crazy, just personality disordered. I escaped with my life and my dog from a severely personality disordered husband two years ago, who is thankfully in prison now.

In the majority, MOST people do not think they are weak and in need of strength. They believe they are deprived and deserve to get what they want. The great compassion you obviously have will, 99% of the time, be either exploited or ignored and YOU will be victimized.

Human beings are the most dangerous and destructive creatures on this planet. Our intelligence and adaptability give our destructiveness no bounds.

I have just about NO faith that there is any hope for an adult human being on the track this guy was on . . . at any time he could have made different choices but did not. We can't go to him and MAKE him make different choices, he'd have to HIMSELF recognize he needs to make them, and obviously, OBVIOUSLY, he did not :(

I have NO answers whatsoever, just grief and gratitude I'm making my own little life as it is . . . and have learned the hard way that these kind of people exist, and look/act normal, and are everywhere. I don't know what else to do but give everyone the MMPI and sterilize the ones who rate high in the sociopathic spectrums.

As you can see I have no real answers but to witness the tragedies and just grieve over the lost innocent lives. At least that piece of crap is dead and can't go on to have more wives and children to do the same thing to. He can't victimize anyone else.

[daisy7]

I read this earlier and was gonna start a thread, but will post it here

Brutal child abuse on the rise

By Kate Santich | Sentinel Staff Writer
May 31, 2009

The girl was 7 years old. Her father, raising her by himself, was just 23. Her great offense, Orange County detectives would later learn, was losing the cell phone her dad had given her. Terrified of what might happen, she lied and said it was stolen.

She had reason to be wary.

When the Orlando man learned the truth, he beat his daughter so badly he broke her spine, bruised her spleen and made her face "unrecognizable" to her own grandmother. Then he called relatives in Washington state, persuaded them to fly out and take the girl, and he put her on a plane in a veiled costume.

If anyone asks, he told the girl's aunt, "Just say [she] was in a car accident." Instead, after reaching Washington, relatives took the child to an emergency room. A nurse practitioner said the force of the father's blow might easily have been fatal.

"It was horrendous," said Carrie Hoeppner, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families' central region, which includes Orlando. "He beat her like he was fighting a grown man."

Though the father — who is not being named to protect his daughter's identity — was arrested in January on attempted murder charges and the girl is recovering, the case continues to trouble child-abuse investigators for other reasons. It is, they say, only one example of a growing trend in which Florida children are being killed or severely injured by the people who are supposed to be taking care of them.

In 2008, the number of fatal child-abuse cases in Central Florida more than doubled over 2007, from 14 to 30. Already this year, the deaths of 59 children are under investigation, though some will likely turn out to be accidental or the result of neglect.

(snipped)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locsevere-child-abuse-053109053109may31,0,4198853.story

[Kimster]

Petey, It is all so overwhelming...and I fear it getting worse! I live in a "sleepy" town much like where Chris Coleman killed his family and it's just....FRIGHTENING! And to have two parents kill their kids in my state within the month is beyond tolerable!!!

I wish there was an answer. I can only try and encourage the people I meet who have lost their jobs...and remind them that they are not alone! (I too lost my job and can't believe how impossible it is to find another one!)

[scandi]

If there were a quick answer to this influx of violent crimes dealing with children, which is what I thought the focus was with the crime at hand here, we would know how to stop any others like it from happening. Right?


People who resort to murdering their children and often wives have always had some quirks or mental issues. So yes, in their selfishness they are POS, putting themselves first, probably thinking they are either doing the better good for the family they kill or getting their piece of revenge in the case of divorce or child custody matters.

IMO people who have basic problems like narcisistic or compulsive lying, often change as they enter different situations from what I have seen in life.

Here is a personal example: I let a guy stay with me who I had known for years, once intimate but turned platonic at my request, and time went on and on, then into months. He would not leave. He was too comfortable here and anything is better than being homeless! He also was unemployed. I started grinding on the fact he had to get out, I couldn't afford to keep him and also didn't want him around.

Then one day I discovered my beautiful old drafting table desk was being written on, having little burn marks appear and then suddenly being carved on. At the same time my car showed paint scrapes from banging it into something, and on each corner of the car. Then little precious things started disappearing, never to be found, obviously thrown away.

He was so pi**ed I would not let him stay he was maintaining control by ruining the things I have. It took me a bit to catch on. I finally called the police who came over and looked at everything. They told me to have the landlord file a paper whereby if he ever came on the property he would be arrested which I did.

I watched this guy turn into a total scary person over the years as he got desperate, and now he was terrorizing me. I couldn't leave him alone in my house and he even got around that. When he did the most damage to my things was when I was sleeping! Big wake up call. xox

[Kimster]

Scandi, My ex got like that too. He would act all nice to my face and then do little subtle things like "lose" my belongings or say something and then later say that wasn't what he meant, etc. A friend of mine directed me to a book called Nasty People by Jay Carter. It fit my ex to a "T"!!!

[scandi]

Oh I know, it never occurred to me you or anyone was making excuses for him.

As far as reaching out for the weak and give them strength before they resort to these crimes . . . well, I have no hope for that, unless we start with our babies, every single baby born in this society, and make sure they receive adequate parenting and nurture.

Do you see where this goes? Take it a few steps further and we have Brave New World.

I worked in adult psychiatry for 17 years. My own father is a life long psychiatric case -- not crazy, just personality disordered. I escaped with my life and my dog from a severely personality disordered husband two years ago, who is thankfully in prison now.

In the majority, MOST people do not think they are weak and in need of strength. They believe they are deprived and deserve to get what they want. The great compassion you obviously have will, 99% of the time, be either exploited or ignored and YOU will be victimized.

Human beings are the most dangerous and destructive creatures on this planet. Our intelligence and adaptability give our destructiveness no bounds.

I have just about NO faith that there is any hope for an adult human being on the track this guy was on . . . at any time he could have made different choices but did not. We can't go to him and MAKE him make different choices, he'd have to HIMSELF recognize he needs to make them, and obviously, OBVIOUSLY, he did not :(

I have NO answers whatsoever, just grief and gratitude I'm making my own little life as it is . . . and have learned the hard way that these kind of people exist, and look/act normal, and are everywhere. I don't know what else to do but give everyone the MMPI and sterilize the ones who rate high in the sociopathic spectrums.

As you can see I have no real answers but to witness the tragedies and just grieve over the lost innocent lives. At least that piece of crap is dead and can't go on to have more wives and children to do the same thing to. He can't victimize anyone else.

Thank you PeteyGirl for that great post with it's insight. It was appreciated, and I think you have hit the nail on the head. In particular how any change will have to come within the bounds of 'the family', and how people raise their children. I think it is at the nub of the issue.

[chicagofa13]

They haven't talked about the Mom but I'm going to take a guess. Has custody, so she had to turn the kids over for visitation. She probably didn't want to, but she HAD to. She didn't think he was capable of this, she had fears of him harming himself or others, but not the kids, he loved them.

She's a victim too.

Just a guess...

I hate seeing all this bad news here in Oregon. I've been home visiting the family in a very 'sleepy' area (actually boarding the plane to leave for Portland in a couple minutes), but the crime here is also really out of control. What is wrong with everyone??