Grand jury indicts OR teen in man’s death

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a 17-year-old on aggravated murder, assault and theft charges in the Oregon coast death of Vancouver native.

The Oregonian reports that a Lincoln County panel brought the new charges Tuesday against Joseph Marsala, also of the Portland area. He is held on $2 million bail in last month’s death of 49-year-old Darrin Dow of Tigard.

The indictment alleges Marsala struck Dow in the head with a garden tool and stabbed him in the stomach and neck with a knife, then destroyed or concealed the weapons. The teen is accused of taking the victim’s Cadillac Escalade, credit cards and cash.

Authorities believe Marsala and another teen accompanied Dow to the Oregon coast on June 24. Police found Dow’s body June 26 in a house in the north end of Lincoln City. The second teen called to report the crime, saying he witnessed the attack.

For more than five decades, Dow’s family owned Dow Columbia, a Portland-based business that cleaned Oriental rugs, and later restored buildings damaged by fire, water and mold across the region, including Clark County. Dow served as CEO prior to the family’s sale of the business in 2006.

Dow most recently served as president of Electronics Restoration in Portland. According to his Facebook page, he had owned the cleaning business since December 2007.