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Good morning, Northwest.

An investigation is unfolding into the deaths of five people at a rural home near Forest Grove over the weekend.

A suspect in the killings was found dead yesterday in Washington state, according to police.

OPB’s Joni Auden Land and Casey Frizzell report on this developing story, which begins today’s newsletter.

— Bradley W. Parks

Developing story

Suspect in 5-person killing near Forest Grove found dead in Washington state

The suspect in the killing of five people at a rural home near Forest Grove has been found dead in Washington state, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday afternoon.

Police in Enumclaw, Washington, a city east of Tacoma, located 36-year-old Benjamin Parker in his vehicle. He appeared to have died by suicide, authorities said.

The announcement came just hours after the Washington County Sheriff’s Office initially announced that they found people killed at a home in a rural part of the county, about 25 miles west of Portland.

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3 things to know

• A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Saturday for the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Hillsboro, the new practice facility for the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and the WNBA’s Fire. (Kyra Buckley)
• A year after passage of a state law to identify and replace derogatory place names in Oregon, only two have been changed so far. (Mackenzie Olivo, Underscore Native News)
• Idaho Power is seeking a $154 million transfer of all of its Oregon service territory to the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, which serves 60,000 customers in John Day, Burns and La Grande across 6,700 square miles. (Mia Maldonado, Oregon Capital Chronicle)

‘At Work With’ a TriMet planner, a health inspector and a doula

In this episode, we meet a doula supporting families through birth, a transit planner at TriMet, and a Multnomah County health inspector making sure food is safe to eat.(Stephanie Hensley, Lillian Karabaic and Jenn Chávez)

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Northwest headlines

• Officials warn wildland firefighters about the risks of using a supplement for smoke exposure (Martha Bellisle, AP)
• The Salish Sea is the place to be for orcas this summer. What’s behind this trend? (Natalie Akane Newcomb, Paige Browning and Sami West, KUOW)
• New Phoenix Library pollinator garden grows from Almeda Fire recovery (Peyton Gast, JPR)
• Seattle proposes assistance for people living in vehicles (Gary Davis, KNKX)
• Toxic algae is showing up at a Columbia River park in Richland. Where is it coming from? (Courtney Flatt, NWPB)
• Junction City chooses Clackamas County commissioner as new administrator (Rebecca Hansen-White, KLCC)
• Mystics rally from 14-point deficit and beat Fire 105-100 (AP)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Gresham water operations manager on changing the city’s water source
• Nonprofit to open Black Community Food Hub in Gresham

One more look

New book details how an Oregon family ‘stole’ Korean children for decades

Between 1953 and 2019, an estimated 150,000 Korean children were adopted by families in the United States. Another 50,000 were sent to Europe.

What’s harder to calculate is how many of those children were actually orphans, how many were actually surrendered by their parents, how many of their parents understood they’d never be able to see their children again, and how many of the children sent away to other countries did not survive the journey.

Bellingham author Paige Towers told this story in her new book, “What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption,” detailing how Harry and Bertha Holt, settled in Oregon, played a key role in this system. (Katie Campbell, KUOW)

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/24/forest-grove-oregon-killing-first-look/