MT ANGEL, Ore. — Police have determined that a couple found shot to death inside their home in Mt. Angel late last month died as the result of a murder-suicide. The husband was identified as the shooter, the Mt. Angel Police Department reported in a news release Monday.
Police identified the husband as Thomas Esson Ewing, 77, and the woman as Virginia Rae Ewing, 71. An autopsy confirmed that Thomas Ewing died by suicide and Virginia Ewing was shot to death.
According to a report in The Oregonian, Thomas Ewing was a former professor who taught at a university in the United Kingdom, and also a lawyer who in 2003 was appointed the chief administrative law judge for the state of Oregon. Ewing also wrote a book about his ancestors who came to Oregon 156 years ago on the Oregon Trail. The Oregonian reports that he and his wife moved to Mt. Angel in 2019.
The bodies were found on Nov. 27 at around 5:58 p.m., when officers responded to a report of a suicide attempt in a home in the area of St. Mary's Avenue and Taylor Street in Mt. Angel, a small town in Marion County, about 17 miles northeast of Salem.
After a preliminary investigation of the scene, police did not search for any suspects since there was no identified threat to the public.
The Mt. Angel Police Department was assisted by the Keizer Police Department, Marion County District Attorney's Office and the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office in the investigation.
