Joshua Webb
A Clackamas County man is accused of decapitating his mother at their home on Mother's Day, then going to a nearby supermarket, where witnesses described him walking in with an 8-inch knife in one hand and a severed human head in the other hand.
Investigators confirmed late Monday that Joshua Lee Webb was holding his mother's head when he went into Estacada's only grocery store.
Tina Marie Webb, 59, was killed at the family's rural home in Colton, authorities said.
One of Webb's sisters who was visiting for the holiday discovered their mother's headless body on the floor of the home, two neighbors said. The distraught sister came to their house to ask them to call police, they said.
She was crying and in shock and told them that she also had found her brother's dog dead on the kitchen counter.
"This is just a nightmare," one of the neighbors said. "It's something you wouldn't imagine someone would do." The two neighbors live within a few houses of the Webbs, but didn't give their names, saying they wanted to let the family know first that they had talked to a reporter.
Webb's father, David Webb, wasn't home at the time his wife was killed, they said.
"My wife was wonderful," David Webb said Monday in a brief phone interview before he was overcome by emotion. "I've been married to her for almost 41 years. Joshua was our son. I never saw a problem. Evidently there was one. I don't know. I start crying every time I think about it."
Joshua Webb, 36, apparently went from Colton, where he lived in a pole barn on his parents' rural property and did odd jobs around the neighborhood, to the Harvest Market.
Employees there described a surreal scene on what had been until then a quiet afternoon in the town of 2,700 about 30 miles southeast of Portland. A 911 call came in at 2:14 p.m. from the store, police said.
A customer first saw a man, later identified as Webb, covered in blood, screamed and ran out of the store in downtown Estacada, said Ashlie Crombie, 25, who has worked there for about three years. Crombie wasn't working Sunday but started to get calls and texts from friends and family asking if she was safe. Co-workers soon told her what happened, she said.
The customer's screams alerted other people in the store, Crombie said as she stood outside the market, which remained closed Monday. It wasn't clear how many people at the time were in the Thriftway, which has about 30 employees, she said.
The man ran to the back of the store, where he encountered clerk Michael Wagner, Crombie said, and told him: "You better run."
The man stabbed Wagner up to seven times, but Wagner, 64, was able to chase after the suspect and tackle him. Other employees kicked and beat the man, wrested the knife away from him, then taped his hands and feet until police arrived, Crombie said.
An employee with first-aid training helped Wagner until paramedics arrived. He has undergone surgery at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland and is expected to recover after suffering wounds in the stomach and sternum, police and friends said.
"He is a tough cookie," his wife, Pam Wagner, said on Facebook as she thanked his "work family" who intervened.
"This is such a crazy random thing that has happened and I am truly at a loss why someone would do what this person did," she said. "Hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight."
Joshua Webb also was taken to Legacy Emanuel, said Interim Sandy Police Chief Ernie Roberts. Webb was "catatonic" by the time officers arrived at the store, he said.
Sandy police, who serve Estacada, are investigating the store stabbing, and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office is investigating Tina Webb's death.
Joshua Webb was booked into the Clackamas County Jail on allegations of murder and attempted murder. He has no history of violent crime in Oregon. Court records show only a conviction for unlawful use of metal objects on tires in June 2000.
A Facebook page linked to a man of the same name in Colton indicates it was created in April, but has few entries. One of the only entries other than pictures of a dog and a comment about a thunderstorm shows a heart over the words "In a relationship." The post reads "when you cant sleep apart and anything life throws at you isnt too much to be with her ,yep thats where im at"
Curtis Strandy, who described Webb as his best friend, said Webb "loved his mother very much" and wasn't argumentative or violent. He described Webb as "the nicest guy" he's ever met.
"It ain't Josh, at all," Strandy said of the accusations against Webb.
Strandy, a 34-year-old Oregon City resident, said he felt Webb had more gumption over the past month or two to have a profession and better his life.
Neighbors said Webb's girlfriend had recently moved out of Oregon. They called Webb "an OK guy" and said he had an eye condition that made it hard for him to keep a steady job. They never noticed any trouble between family members, they said. Tina and David Webb have four grown children.
The Webbs have lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. Tina Webb graduated several years ago with a horticulture degree from Clackamas Community College and was a master gardener, neighbors said. She had designed and worked on a garden at a local church, they said.
At the Harvest Market on Monday, yellow caution tape encircled the store and parking lot. Some people in hazardous material suits removed items from the store in red bags and placed them into a green truck.
Wagner mostly works as a cashier but also helps out in the produce section and other areas, Crombie said.
"He is the sweetest, most kind-hearted guy," she said. "We all feel terrible that this happened."
Wagner is a well-known figure at the store known for his love of puns and telling jokes, customers said.
"He's such a happy-go-lucky guy," said regular Timmer Robertson, 62, of Estacada. "He'll sit and tell you which vegetables to get and which ones not to. Really nice guy. No one around here will have a bad thing to say about him."
Connie Tumaniszwili, 71, of Estacada, said she'd gone to the store three times on Sunday but had left about an hour before the stabbing.
"Everyone is family here and we all take care of each other," she said. "When something like this happens, we all feel it.
"We're just so thankful that he survived," she said. "If we lost him, this town wouldn't be the same."
A sign outside the market read: "Get well soon, Mike." People left hand-written messages, including: "Miss your smiley face." "Praying for you and your family." "Get well and be careful. There are crazy people out there."
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
ebailey@oregonian.com
503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey