<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Man, 22, charged in fatal stabbing at Myrtle Creek home

By STEVEN DUBOIS, Associated Press
Published: August 11, 2016, 8:37pm

PORTLAND, Ore. — A young man was arrested after his grandmother called 911 to report he fatally stabbed a man at a rural home in southwest Oregon.

Gunnar Vachon, 22, has been charged with murder in the death of 41-year-old Chris Bell, Douglas County authorities said.

Court documents show Gayle Pool called for help Wednesday afternoon, telling a dispatcher that Vachon had run off after killing Bell. Responding sheriff’s deputies found Vachon outside the home that’s on the border of Myrtle Creek and Canyonville.

Amber Vachon, the suspect’s mother, told a detective that Bell had been in her bedroom and Gunnar had also gone in. After a few minutes, Gunnar left the room covered in blood, telling his mother and grandmother he killed Bell.

“Amber and Pool said that they never heard any arguing or any sounds consistent with signs of a struggle between Gunnar and Bell,” Detective Nate Goodman said in an affidavit supporting the arrest.

The women told Goodman they found Bell on the bed, bleeding heavily from stab wounds to his neck. Bell died at the scene.

Goodman wrote that a bloody knife was found next to the body.

Deputies found Vachon outside the home.

“Gunnar initially told me that he remembered what he had done prior to the incident with Bell, and remembered what he had done after the incident with Bell, but couldn’t remember what had happened in the bedroom with Bell,” Goodman wrote.

“Eventually, Gunnar told me, ‘I killed him.'”

He was being held without bail at a Roseburg jail.

Dwes Hutson, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said Bell was an acquaintance of the family, but didn’t know the specific relationship.

Vachon was convicted in June of misdemeanor criminal mischief and harassment at the home where Wednesday’s violence occurred.

Records show Vachon tossed his mother to the ground, pushed his grandmother, threw a vacuum cleaner through a glass table and broke doors, chairs and an antique coffee table.

The man told police he had gotten off probation and had a few drinks.

He was sentenced to 20 days in jail, with credit for time served.

Loading...