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Murder-suicide leaves two dead in Mac
McMinnville police found a father and son dead of gunshot wounds Saturday in the front room of their apartment. Following an autopsy, they ruled the incident a murder-suicide.
Capt. Dennis Marks said an autopsy conducted by the state Medical Examiner's Office showed Thomas Duaine Marshall, 58, and Sean Thomas Marshall, 22, both died of close-range gunshots.
"It appears that this incident was a murder-suicide in which Sean Marshall took the life of his father and then took his own life," Marks said.
He said a handgun was used. He said no note was left, but there was no sign of forced entry.
The deaths occurred in Apartment 16 in a complex located at 935 Cozine Lane, behind a Tesoro gas station on Highway 99W.
A family friend found the two men Saturday morning and called 911. Police officers arrived around 10:30 a.m.
Detective Matt Scales said the shootings apparently occurred sometime during the night. But with firecrackers being set off in celebration of Independence Day, the shots went unreported.
Pam Litscher, who manages the complex with her husband, Jim, said she didn't hear anything Friday night that she could identify as gunshots.
"Was it a gunshot? Was it fireworks?" she said. "It's hard to say, this time of year."
Litscher learned of the crime from a tenant who said the scene was very bloody. "It's bad enough to hear about it," she said.
Marks said the elder Marshall, who would have turned 59 Monday, had been diagnosed with terminal liver disease. He was reportedly contemplating hospice care, typically reserved for patients with fewer than six months to live.
The younger Marshall graduated from McMinnville High School in 2005.
He was an avid skateboarder. He had reportedly played in a rock band called Guru Goddess and worked as a machinist.
The two moved into the complex about a year ago, Litscher said.
They were good tenants, she said. They were polite and paid their rent on time.
Thomas Marshall, a retiree, is survived by an ex-wife in California and a 19-year-old daughter in McMinnville, Gabrielle Danae Marshall. An assistant manager said Gabrielle, known as Gabi, was a frequent visitor.
Crystal Phillips, who lives across the parking lot in apartment 30, said the Marshalls were quiet tenants who kept to themselves.
"The dad reminded me of a big old teddy bear," Litscher said. "He was a very nice man. I don't think he had a bad bone in his body."
She said, "Sean, the son, was very quiet." She termed him "the son-in-law you would have liked to have."
Skaters Jensen Clark and Juan Briseno, both 16, knew Sean from Joe Dancer skate park.
"He was really nice," Clark said. "He never got mad at anybody."
Briseno said he was a good skater who came often, usually with several friends.
On Tuesday, after the bodies had been removed and crime scene tape taken down, the Marshalls' black, 1980s-vintage Mazda sedan still sat in the driveway outside.
A colorfully striped woven blanket still hung in the window, above a square blue flower pot containing a dead plant. The handles of Thomas Marshall's walker were visible above the windowsill.
The task of removing belongings and cleaning up blood from the Fourth of July tragedy fell to the assistant manager, Vicki.
She took a drag from her cigarette and shuddered as she contemplated the unpleasant task ahead. "We're all trying to deal with the situation," she said.
Macy & Son Funeral Directors is handling arrangements.
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Thu, 07/09/2009 - 7:35pm - Posted by: Pat Longbottom
What does Gabi look like?
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 3:36pm - Posted by: adhr0981
i dont think this is a subject all you people need to argue about. just ignore what peoples negativity has to say. things happen, sean was an awesome guy. i didnt know him too well, but from the times i have met him, he was such an outgoing and funny person. he was my boyfriends good friend, and it hurts me to see the sadness my boy has to go through. but life is life,. and their time had came. sean and his dad will be missed, but they will always be watching down on those they cared for, and cared for them.
never take life for granted, you never know when your time will come.
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 3:14pm - Posted by: mariposa1
Does anyone know if there is going to be a funeral or memorial for Sean and Thomas? If so where and when?
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 11:21am - Posted by: macrat
Coolmom, could I get some info on the memorial next thursday? My boys grew up with Sean and Gabi and our family would like to attend. Thanks.
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 9:36am - Posted by: ih8mcmethville
Curiosity and greed are both very human qualities, it will be an awakened day for you when you see with your eyes not with your mouth. you both have completely missed the point i was trying to make. nothing further out of me on this..im not perfect, but i try to recognize sheer ignorance when i see it and go the other way.
coolmom_x3
if you were a good friend you would respect the privacy of others. you bear a striking resemblence to motherof3.
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 9:05am - Posted by: coolmom_x3
Yes, we know the word acceptance. But when you personally know the people involved (ALL of them sister included) accepting a murder/suicide after knowing everything that we know it just NOT an option. They helped us in our time of need just as we helped them. We were the closest thing to family that these people had, so YES I do know what Im talking about! Even though we can't accept it we do have to move on. Dwelling on what the police should or shouldn't do will just make us go crazy. The memorial being held next Thursday will help us to do just that, move on.
I agree that we should not slander someone on a public forum whether you know first hand or not. That being said, it doesn't mean that you have to coddle them either. Yes, the sister visited frequently, does that mean the visits were nice/friendly/good, NO it absolutely doesn't. More often than not they were not very smooth visits. As far as the bf goes, I don't know him so I cannot say anything either way about him. What I can say is that he would have NEVER EVER been let into that apartment. And yes I know that for a FACT.
And "mcmethville" please just shut it. OMG Yes people snap, however you don't know all that was involved here. Only the police and we the family do. Most of the people who live in McMinnville are good people and have nothing to do with meth, thank you very much!
mysteree56 - THANK YOU
RIP Thom & Sean, may you find peace
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 8:58am - Posted by: macrat
Is it just ME? Or does anyone else have a problem with this Hannah Hoffman rewrite of the story? It upset me to read "the scene was very bloody", and "The task of ... cleaning up blood". Was this really necessary? The friends and family are having a hard enough time getting these pictures out of their heads without these kind of statements written in black and white to remind us of the horror. Please be more tactful in your news writing, Hannah. This is not a fiction novel you are writing so we can all picture every grizzly detail. This is cold harsh reality. We don't need to know how much blood there was or that the freaking manager is a heavy smoker!
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 7:57am - Posted by: ih8mcmethville
your comments speculating a grand conspiracy are far fetcthed at the least. I wasnt at the scene, but im sure that there were key elements in the apt that made the investigation fairly cut and dry. Im not sure what personal experience you have. your speaking with someone that has lived through this very same type of situation. The only thing your accomplishing here is spreading rumors. You watch the news and people always say when these sort of things happen "oh so and so was such a nice boy, we never expected any of this to happen" so i mean of course you would never think this person was capable either, not in a million years..right? So people just snap sometimes for whatever reason its theirs. This person wasnt murderer in the sense that it was cold blood. He was emotionally torn for some reason. you can only hope that both of these indivuals can find some peace in death where they couldnt in life. Rumors and speculation hurt the closest friends and family trust me. ill sum it up for you in one easy to understand word. ACCEPTANCE..
ANOTHER FOOTNOTE: to answer your question as well.. i don't live in mcminnville, i work there. My parents live directly behind cozine crk. apartments, hence my intrest.
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 6:53pm - Posted by: mysteree56
This is in responce to the comment left by ih8mcmethville. Although I do watch CSI, all it takes a little common since to know that everything is not always as it appears!! If you watch CSI like the rest of the world then you should know It would not take a genius to do a double murder and then stage it as a murder suicide!! I am just saying that maybe a little more time, which would be needed to do a very thorough investigation, that maybe they would have came up with a diff. conclusion!! I mean even if it were not a double murder maybe it was a double suicide and not a murder suicide, or maybe even an assisted suicide, suicide. It just does not seem like enough time was invested in this case. It did not have to be dragged out over a period of months, but this all happened on a holiday weekend and by Mon. they had already reached a conclusion. What happened to sending evidence off to the state crime lab and getting it back a couple weeks later???I just think it is sad that Seans memory has to be clouded to some with the thought that he may have been a murderer. Did not even know the young man personaly, but from what I have heard he was a humanitarian and well like by his piers. I just believe their was no malice on Seans part of whatever went down.
And to those that left comments about others that left their opinions on what had happened on public forum should have told the police. Their is a phone number at the bottom of the article. Who is to say they did not use that phone #???
Oh, and ih8mcmethville just one more thing. If you hate it here why do you stay? It is a free country, at least for the time being!!!! R.I.P. Sean & Tom
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 3:29pm - Posted by: mattyboy4u
ih8mcmethville
I remember the murder-suicide case in '99 myself, as I was in Mac High then too. Friends with one myself. Unfortunately, I never knew this family (as far as I know, only one picture of the son so far, but the fathers name sounds familiar.) but I do think you are correct in just having to accept life sometimes, and keep the good memories you have of people. I had to do an interview with FOX 12 that day, and I stick to my statement of things like this don't happen much in this town. At least as far as murder suicides go. Tends to be just a lot more suicides than anything. But that is some good advice and I stick to it everyday. I just think that criticisms as on this article should be taken higher if people really think they are true. Whats the point of posting slander on a forum of a news board? If you really think your statements are true than you should call the investigator that was handling the case instead of posting it where that same investigator will probably not see. My thoughts anyways. R.I.P Sean and Thomas.
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 10:48am - Posted by: ih8mcmethville
edited last comment for correct year..i was in highschool and the nature being that i dont remember too much in detail about those couple of years. I noticed another mistake in the story itself. They have the address wrong for those apts. 915 is the house my folks live in behind cozine crk. apts i wonder if any news vans have showed up at the house.. i should call
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 9:47am - Posted by: spointer
It was May 1999.
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 9:22am - Posted by: macresident001
first of all, i agree that the daughter is going through enough right now and for people to point the finger at her or her boyfriend for that matter is just wrong! It's so sad that something like this has to happen but things like this happen everyday. how bout everyone plays nice and supports everyone that needs to be supported instead of being opinionated jerks like most of McMinnville has seemed to become!
ih8tmcmethville,
are you sure it was 1998 not 1999?
Wed, 07/08/2009 - 10:43am - Posted by: ih8mcmethville
I dont know those involved, however it bring me to 1999(*edited, pardon my bad sense of time.) when my best friend at the time shot his girlfriend and then himself in a county park. With that said, i'm over it now but it was a long journey for me to shut out the feeling of grief, speculation, and the "woulda, shoulda, couldas" Advice to these friends,(using the term loosly due to past experience.) Let go of what you cant control.
Just let it rest and live in the memory of your friend.
FOOTNOTE: to the person who thinks the police are "tagging" his friend a murderer, and that the case wasnt "high-profile" enough to stretch the investigation out over months. Some things are just very open and shut. Don't you watch CSI like everyoneelse on the planet?
Tue, 07/07/2009 - 4:43pm - Posted by: JM1980
I agree, thank you for putting that up there. The truth is, no one knows but the one's who are unfortunetely deceased. So people should not speculate, and if they have information on the subject than go to the police! And leave the daughter alone, she has been through enough!
Tue, 07/07/2009 - 4:39pm - Posted by: mysteree56
Well here it is three days after Sean and his dad were found and already the the investigators have determined that it is a" murder suicide"!! So Sean is being tagged as a "murderer". I guess this was just not high profile enough to invest more time and really get to the bottom of it. Much easier just to determine it a" murder suicide", and then call it a day!! Those that knew Sean know better. No way could he murder anyone especially his own father!!! R. I. P. Sean & Dad
Tue, 07/07/2009 - 6:04am - Posted by: NoStepInMother
I really feel the comment left slandering Sean's sister and accusing them of drug use should be taken off of the site. That is not acceptable behavior for a public forum.
These threads are for us to increase the community of the site, not to bash people who are featured in the articles.
Have some tact, please.
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 10:37pm - Posted by: scstewart
I use to skate with Sean in high school. We actually met at a tobacco awareness class because we were both busted on the same day for MIP tobacco. Along with Sean was Gabi. I have known the two of them since around 2004. Sean was a big hearted guy with a larger than life view. I just heard yesterday about what happened and I just can't bring myself to even think that he would do something like this. I haven't seen Sean in over a year, but I have been told he is still the same guy.
One thing I do know is that people need to quit speculating and wait for the facts to come out. Slandering Gabi is not going to solve anything and I really think with the stress she is under, she should not have to face these types of accusations. Please stop spreading the rumors and just remember what a great guy Sean was. He will forever be in our hearts and thoughts.
Sean-I don't know what happened or what circumstances were involved, but I hope that if you were hurting, it's all gone now. I love you man. You and Drew take it easy up there.
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 8:27pm - Posted by: motherof3
Well i sure would hope that seans sister had nothing to do with this... it does seem kinda odd, that this just kinda happend after him speaking to friends and eveything being fine.. someone made a comment about gabi 's boyfriend.. and if hes anything like her x bofriend who is sitting in jail, anything is possible. her brother and father are in a better place. i hope this just all gets resolved.
I see that my post was edited.. and thats fine with me.. i never accused seans sister of anything..just made a comment about another comment that was left.. and i never made false statements.. they were facts.. and its all public information..anyone can get that information from the courthouse and check inmate listing reports..it was also in the paper..i do know gabi and know for a fact she was having some problems.. but i apoligize if it all came out wrong..
-- edited by website administration to remove personal detail
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 8:11pm - Posted by: darth_r8r
AND THE PLOT THICKENS.....DONT STOP THE CARNIVAL!!!!..actually i luv how all these people are coming forward on this comment sight..maybe the COPS will talk 2 each and every one of you so they can get to the bottom of this..if you are all friends like you say you are you'd spend a minute and go tell it to the cops instead of posting it all on the internet..Cheers
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 7:02pm - Posted by: dgafxprincess
i know the family...I've been mistaken for Gabi since I've been younger...Sean talked to my brother the night before it happened and Sean seemed fine...I don't care what these dumbass cops in this town seem to think Sean had a big heart and I don't ever seen him hurting someone not even his dad...He said he was gonna spend the 4th with his dad...I still say it was a double murder!! Me and my family and alot of Sean's close friends don't believen this for a second!! Knowing that it was someone who loved life so much and had such a free soul.. I met Sean and Gabi back when they where in Guru Goddess and I don't see something like this happening...But my brother and his friends are doing things around the community to raise money so they can have a funeral because we know they didn't have much money... Rest In Peace Sean.. I hope you and Drew are having a good time up there in the sky!! We'll all see you someday until than peace out.
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 4:52pm - Posted by: JM1980
The daughter had nothing to do with this and it's very unruly for someone to say otherwise, without knowing the facts. I was there when the daughter showed up and found out, and she was devastated, and just as shocked as everyone else close to the family. You don't even know her, she would go see her dad and brother everyday. How could you slander someone you don't even know! please don't make accusations without knowing all the facts!
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 12:06pm - Posted by: mysteree56
I would think if it were a murder suicide that both the victims would have gunshot wounds, and not just one. Maybe the police should question the daughters boyfriend, from what I understand he hated Sean and his father!!! And if the daughter is fabricating stories maybe she is trying to cover for her boyfriend.
Mon, 07/06/2009 - 11:19am - Posted by: treadlightly
I know who found the scene first, and we are praying for him constantly. I went to school with Sean, our dads worked together for 20+ years, it is a tradgey that both these lives are now gone.
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 11:25pm - Posted by: coolmom_x3
I know who found the bodies and I don't think that their identity matters for the story to be reported accurately. I knew both victims and I am not buying the murder/suicide angle. I am not sure what is going on with the daughter, but he did NOT have cancer! He was diagnosed with liver failure at the local hospital and was released and sent home late Friday afternoon. I am totally shocked that his own daughter is falsely commenting on the details of the illness. What's worse is that some of the tv news reports are including her false comments.
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 5:35pm - Posted by: mattyboy4u
Not sure who found the bodies, but from what I've gathered so far, a gun was used on one of the people, and the other was not. It was behind Tesoro, where I work actually, and did an interview with Fox 12 news, but nobody is talking yet on any more details until the investigation is through. From what it sounds like though, they are leaning more towards a suicide-homicide.
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 4:38pm - Posted by: darth_r8r
So...who found the body's?
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 3:17pm - Posted by: twoB
Yes they are.
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 3:13pm - Posted by: darth_r8r
Are these the "ghetto" apts just off 99 behind the gas station? by Linfield?
Sun, 07/05/2009 - 2:03am - Posted by: twoB
I saw the News van there this afternoon and had wondered what that was about. I used to live in those apartments, glad I don't anymore. Wonder what the details on this occurrence will turn out to be.