2 Oregon Coaches and 14-Year-Old Student Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide
Two Oregon wrestling coaches, and a high school student are dead in what authorities are calling a murder-suicide, according to reports.
On Thursday, the bodies of Kenneth Valdez and Jason Huston, both 45, were found dead along with James “JJ” Hurtado, 14, in Hermiston – a city near the northern border of Oregon, the Associated Press reports.
According to The Oregonian, Hurtado’s body was recovered from a woodsy area along the Umatilla River with a fatal gunshot wound. The teen was reportedly scheduled to start high school at the end of August and participated in cross-country and wrestling.
Police reportedly issued an alert for Hurtado, who was listed as “endangered,” early Thursday after they found the bodies of the coaches and learned that the teen had been picked up by Huston that morning for a game of golf.
Around 11:15 a.m., police responded to a call at the Valdez residence and found the bodies of Valdez and Huston, the newspaper reports. Although police did not specify the manner of death for Valdez, they told the AP that Huston died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
35-year-old Andria Bye, the boy’s mother, was reportedly found in the home with a gunshot wound and taken to the hospital.
“Clearly this was a selfish choice that was made,” Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edminston told the newspaper. “All of us are just numb that he chose to do what he did.”
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan told the Oregonian that they did not have a motive for the crime.
“The three parties in the house all knew each other, and there were relationships between all three of them involved,” Edminston said, adding that Huston was a “father-like figure” to Hurtado.
According to the publication, Huston, who was a longtime friend of Valdez, was arrested in December of 2008 for menacing and unlawful possession of a gun and pleaded no contest. He was subsequently sentence to probation and 20 hours of community service, while the menacing charge was dropped.
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