Suspect in killings of five found dead in Washington, authorities say

Forest Grove, Ore. — A man identified by authorities as the suspect in the killings of five people was found dead in a vehicle in Enumclaw, Washington, on Sunday — one day after the bodies were discovered on rural property near Portland.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said 36-year-old Benjamin Charles Parker died from an apparent suicide. Officials said there was no longer a threat to the public, but they did not immediately say what led investigators to Parker or describe his relationship to the victims.

Sheriff Caprice Massey told KOIN-TV that Parker knew the victims. That detail, along with the condition of the scene, has made the case one of the most complex in the agency’s recent memory.

Emergency responders were sent to the Forest Grove area early Saturday after reports of a vehicle fire on a rural property about 30 miles west of downtown Portland. There, they found the remains of five people and several domestic animals, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities have not released the names, ages or genders of the people who died, nor have they specified how they were killed or how the animals died. Detectives are still working to confirm identifications and notify next of kin, a process complicated by the scale of the scene.

“Any time you have one person deceased, let alone five, that’s a logistical challenge,” sheriff’s Detective Shannon Wilde said at a news conference Sunday.

The vehicle containing Parker’s body was found behind a Safeway store in Enumclaw, according to the Enumclaw Police Department. The town sits roughly 35 miles southeast of Seattle.

Massey said the investigation remains active and asked anyone with information about the property or those connected to it to contact authorities. “In my 22 years here, I have not been a part of or witnessed a scene quite this complex involving this type of an investigation,” she said.