Mom, 47, Misses Work for Two Days, Prompting Coworkers to Check on Her — Three Family Members Are Found Dead

When a dependable Oregon mother vanished from her job for two straight days, her coworkers refused to ignore the quiet alarm bells ringing in their heads.

Forty-seven-year-old Katie Kinder never missed a shift without warning. Her sudden silence quickly raised suspicion among the coworkers who knew her best.

When routine welfare checks yielded no answers, her determined colleagues took matters into their own hands. What they ultimately uncovered would spark a statewide manhunt and leave a community reeling.

A Missed Day at Work Raises the Alarm

The ordeal began on Monday, October 19, 2026, when Kinder failed to report for work. Her employer knew something was wrong and alerted the Happy Valley police, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Deputies with the sheriff's office made several attempts to conduct welfare checks throughout the day but couldn't reach Kinder or her mother. There was initially little indication of what was happening inside.

Officers said they found nothing suspicious at the house during those checks. Neighbors told police they had not seen anyone at the residence for several days. Kinder's colleagues grew more uneasy as the entire workday passed without a word.

Then Tuesday came, and Kinder missed her second straight day of work. Deeply concerned, her coworkers called the authorities a second time to report her ongoing absence. Authorities reached Kinder's out-of-state relatives and learned more about the people living under the same roof.

Kinder shared the Happy Valley home with her mother, 78-year-old Patricia Campbell, and her 15-year-old son, Evan Kinder. Her boyfriend, Edward Villa, 45, also lived there.

But Kinder's coworkers did not stop with another phone call. They decided to go to the house themselves.

Coworkers Go Inside the Home

At about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, some of Kinder's coworkers arrived at the property and managed to get inside, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. They then called police for help.

Clackamas County sheriff's deputies entered the home in the 13000 block of Southeast Highpointe Street. Inside, they found three members of the same family dead. The victims were Kinder, her mother, Campbell, and her son, Evan.

The Clackamas County Medical Examiner's Office later determined that all three had died from gunshot wounds, according to FOX 12 Oregon.

Investigators believe the three were killed sometime between Sunday evening and early Monday, although authorities were still working to establish a more precise timeline.

What had begun with a woman unexpectedly missing work was now a homicide investigation involving three generations of one family. And investigators soon turned their attention to the fourth person who had been living in the house.

Detectives Focus on Kinder's Boyfriend

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office identified Villa, Kinder's boyfriend, as the person detectives believed was responsible. Investigators said they established probable cause to believe Villa intentionally killed Kinder, Campbell, and Evan and acted alone.

An arrest warrant for Villa was issued Wednesday. Villa had worked for the North Clackamas School District since 2007. Most recently, he served as a student and community engagement specialist.

The district said Villa did not show up for work Wednesday. Kinder's son also had a connection to the district. Evan was a 10th grade student at New Urban Online.

By then, investigators were looking for Villa, who was no longer at the family's Happy Valley home. Their search would lead them to the Oregon coast.

The Search Ends at a Coastal Motel

Authorities eventually located Villa at the South Jetty Inn in Hammond, near Warrenton. Officers had watched his vehicle at the motel before members of the U.S. Marshals Service joined the operation.

The attempt to arrest Villa became a multi-agency effort, with members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force surrounding the motel and trying to make verbal contact with him.

Then, at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, marshals heard what authorities believed was a single gunshot from Villa's room. Officials were unable to establish contact with him. When authorities entered the room, they found Villa dead.

Warrenton police said he appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The U.S. Marshals Service similarly said Villa killed himself before he could be taken into custody. Clackamas County Sheriff's Office officials said officers did not fire their weapons during the attempted arrest.

Villa's death meant investigators would continue trying to reconstruct what happened at the Happy Valley house without being able to take their suspect into custody. Authorities said the events immediately preceding the three killings remained unclear.

A Grandmother, Mother, and Teenage Son Are Identified

At a Thursday news conference, authorities publicly identified the three people found inside the home. Relatives described Campbell as someone who helped hold their family together and was loved as both a mother and grandmother.

Kinder was remembered by her relatives as a loving aunt who brought joy and laughter to the family. They said Evan was young and had his whole life ahead of him.

The family said the killings had taken a mother, a sister, and a nephew from them. In a statement released through law enforcement, relatives addressed the scale of their loss.

"Our family is living through a nightmare that no family should ever have to experience. These were not just three lives lost – they were our family, our loved ones, and an irreplaceable part of our lives."

The family asked for privacy as they grieve and thanked members of the community for their support. Villa's ex-wife, Tiffany Villa, also spoke publicly after the deaths. She told FOX 12 that she and Villa shared a son and said her primary concern was their son's well-being.

A County Program Put to the Test

The North Clackamas School District characterized the killings as an act of domestic violence and said it stood against domestic violence in all forms.

The district said students and families have a right to live free from fear, abuse, and violence at home and throughout their communities. Clackamas County Sheriff James Rhodes also addressed domestic and violent crime while discussing the case.

The deaths occurred during Domestic Violence Awareness Month — and just weeks after Clackamas County officials unveiled a major initiative designed to change how the county responds to domestic and sexual violence.

On October 1, county leaders publicly detailed what they called their "Gold Standard" approach. The initiative had been in development since the previous year and brought together law enforcement, prosecutors, and service providers.

Its stated goal was to combine practices used elsewhere into one coordinated system for Clackamas County. Figures reported by KOIN 6 News show domestic violence referrals to the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office increased from 914 in 2023 to 1,024 in 2024 and 1,032 in 2025.

Prosecutors filed 593 cases from referrals received in 2023, 597 from those received in 2024, and 645 from the 2025 referrals. The district attorney's office also said Clackamas County files roughly twice the national average of domestic violence and sexual assault cases.

County Expands Domestic Violence Response

The county's new approach includes additional training for professionals who respond to domestic and sexual violence cases. Detectives are set to receive 40 hours of training in sexual assault investigations and trauma-informed interviewing.

Patrol officers are to receive 12 hours of specialized training, while frontline office employees are also slated for trauma-informed care instruction.

The wider program includes teaching police and paramedics to recognize strangulation, while prosecutors receive training on handling such evidence in court. Clackamas County has also adopted a "hidden homicide" protocol.

The protocol is intended to examine deaths initially classified as accidents or suicides when there are indications domestic or sexual violence could have been involved. Those reviews can include checks for previous reports of abuse and protective orders.

The district attorney's office is also launching an audit of sexual assault cases dating to 2018, including cases prosecutors previously declined. County officials described it as Oregon's first audit of its kind.

District Attorney John Wentworth said Clackamas County would become the seventh jurisdiction nationwide to conduct one. Another part of the county's plan arrived at a striking point in the timeline.

An online portal intended to give crime victims access to court dates, case updates, and advocates was scheduled to launch October 21 — the same day authorities announced the deaths at the Happy Valley home.

A Larger Family Justice Center Is Planned

Clackamas County is also planning a larger Family Justice Center, scheduled for completion in 2029. It will replace the existing 9,000-square-foot Oregon City facility serving people affected by domestic violence, sexual violence, elder abuse, and human trafficking.

Updated county figures show the existing center has recorded more than 40,000 visits since opening in 2013. In 2025, there were 3,875 in-person service visits, including 781 survivors accessing services for the first time.

The center also helped complete 561 protective-order applications that year, 86 percent of which were granted. Clackamas Women's Services Executive Director Melissa Erlbaum said survivors do not have to report abuse to police before receiving help.

About half the people her organization serves have not made reports to law enforcement, she said, and some may never do so. The county formally announced the wider initiative on September 30, saying it wanted Clackamas County to become a national model for supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence.

The effort encompasses specialized training, closer coordination among agencies, greater access to case information, and the expanded Family Justice Center.

County officials have also identified housing costs, limited affordable childcare, and reduced funding for victim services as continuing barriers for survivors seeking safety.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the deaths of Kinder, Campbell, and Evan remains ongoing as authorities work to establish the complete timeline.

For their relatives, the case concerns three generations of one family. But the chain of events that brought authorities into their home began with an everyday absence that Kinder's coworkers refused to ignore.