PORTLAND — Investigators await the results of toxicology tests to see if a man accused of decapitating his mother and then walking into a grocery store with her head was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time.
Detectives tried to interview Joshua Webb, 36, of Colton on Sunday and Monday, but he didn’t say anything, said Clackamas County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Nate Thompson.
Authorities don’t know if Webb has a diagnosed mental illness, Thompson said Wednesday. They hope an autopsy and toxicology tests will shed more light on what happened, he said.
A Clackamas County judge on Tuesday ordered Webb to remain in the county jail without bail on accusations of murder, attempted murder, first-degree abuse of a corpse and first-degree aggravated animal abuse. He is next due in court May 23 for a preliminary hearing.
He is accused of stabbing his 59-year-old mother, Tina Marie Webb, and then cutting off her head at the family home on Mother’s Day. Webb also killed his dog, then went to the Harvest Market Thriftway about 10 miles away in Estacada, where he walked in with his mother’s head and a knife in his hands and stabbed 64-year-old employee Mike Wagner after running to the back of the store, police said.
Wagner and other employees subdued Webb and held him at the market until police arrived.
Officers found a large kitchen knife and Tina Webb’s remains on the store floor near where her son was tackled, said Interim Sandy Police Chief Ernie Roberts. Sandy police serve Estacada and are investigating the store attack. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Tina Webb’s death.
Searching for why
Police are still reviewing surveillance video from the grocery store and interviewing witnesses, Roberts said.
The downtown market reopened Tuesday. A donation fund for Wagner has been created through US Bank.
Roberts said investigators don’t know why Webb chose to come to the Harvest Market.
” ‘Why?’ is the big question we all have right now and it’s important to know why because it will go a long way in helping people with the healing process,” he said. “We’re working to find answers to all these questions, but it’s possible we may never know why some of these events occurred.”
He said he hopes to one day talk to the employees at the Thriftway and thank them in person for helping stop Webb.
“I think about the people in that store every day and the trauma they’ve experienced,” Roberts said. “They were heroic in subduing Mr. Webb that day and I believe if they hadn’t, it could have been much worse.”
