Inset: Police at the scene of the Oregon home where five people were found dead. Background: The Oregon property where firefighters found five dead bodies as part of a quintuple murder-suicide carried out by the boyfriend of one of the victims. (KATU/YouTube).
Oregon firefighters stumbled upon five bodies while responding to the scene of a vehicle fire at a person's property, with cops saying a man wiped out his girlfriend and four members of her family in a quintuple murder-suicide.
"We're going to just take our hoses and get out of here," a firefighter can be heard saying in dispatch audio obtained by local ABC affiliate KATU. "Let the sheriff's office clear this."
Benjamin Parker, 36, was found dead inside his car — parked behind a Safeway grocery store in Enumclaw, Washington — after carrying out the killings on Saturday at a home outside Forest Grove, Oregon, according to police.
A Washington County Sheriff's Office press release identifies the victims as 60-year-old property owner Rowan Kimsey; her 85-year-old mother, Mary Kimsey; Portland couple Linsey Haraldsen, 26, and Alvin Chu, 27; and 26-year-old Stella Kimsey. Causes of death have not been released yet.
"Linsey was Stella's best friend and Alvin was Linsey's partner," WCSO officials say. "Rowan owned and lived at the property. Stella also lived there with her boyfriend, Benjamin Parker, the suspect in this case."
In addition to the five victims, two cats and two dogs were found dead on the property. An additional cat was found injured and transported to a veterinarian for treatment, but it had to be euthanized due to the extent of its injuries.
Enumclaw, where Parker was found dead, is about 190 miles northeast of Forest Grove.
"They called us and said, 'We have a cell phone ping in your city, here's the plate and the car that you're looking for,'" Enumclaw Police Chief Tim Floyd told local NBC affiliate KGW. "So we go to the Flock system, we put the plate in, we could see that he's hit a couple of our cameras and the last hit was him coming into the city and he had not left so we had a good indication that he was still here."
The property where the victims were found is made up of 15 acres and includes a farm. The livestock have all been "rehomed," according to WCSO officials.
A motive for the murders has not been released.