By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian
November 18, 2009, 4:10PM
After three domestic murder-suicides in the Portland area this month, a fourth attempt has bloodied the state but this time in Coos County.
Ashley Kendall, 22, was shot Tuesday night by her husband who hid in their Jeep Wagoneer while she was meeting with a divorce attorney, according to R. Paul Frasier, Coos County district attorney.
When she got back in her car, he shot her in the back and then later killed himself after a police chase, Frasier said.
He said Coos County has seen other domestic deaths during his 25-year-old career as a prosecutor, but nothing like this.
"We've had cases where the husband kills the wife or the wife kills the husband but this is the first time I've had one where they're trying to separate and he's lying in wait to kill her," Frasier said.
Kendall, who lives in Myrtle Point, was transported by Life Flight helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Medical Center in Portland in "extremely critical condition," Frasier said. A spokeswoman at Legacy refused to comment on the case.
On Nov. 4, a woman was shot and killed by her estranged boyfriend, who also killed himself and their son in his Southeast Portland home. Six days later, a Gladstone man killed his estranged wife and himself at a Legacy drug testing lab in Tualatin where she worked. The third-murder suicide in the Portland area involved a family with financial troubles. Police, who found their bodies in their Bethany home Nov. 11, said the husband shot his wife, child and then himself.
Police in Coos Bay were alerted to the shooting of Ashley Kendall by her sister, who called 9-1-1. The sister, who was not named, told an emergency dispatcher that while she was talking to Ashley on the phone her sister started screaming that "he" was in the car with her.
Then the phone went dead.
The 9-1-1 center in Coos Bay received two other calls, one about a gunshot and screaming and the second reporting that a bleeding woman was lying in the 1900 block of Koos Bay Boulevard in Coos Bay.
Police identified the suspected shooter as her husband, 26-year-old Travis Roy Kendall, who was spotted by Coquille Police Chief Mark Dannels driving towards Myrtle Point.
A police chase ensued, ending with Kendall pulling into the home of relatives in Myrtle Point, Frasier said.
Kendall pointed his rifle at Dannels, who shot him in the leg. Kendall then ducked around a corner and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head with a .30-06 caliber rifle, Frasier said.
Dannels was put on paid administrative leave.
Court records show Kendall was convicted of burglary in 2003 and of being a felon in possession of a firearm at the beginning of this year.
Investigators suspect that the rifle was one Kendall's grandfather gave him when he was a kid.
Frasier said the couple were married in September 2008 and had a baby. This October, Travis Kendall was jailed on a domestic abuse allegation. He was released but ordered not to have contact with his wife.
Last month their child was taken into protective custody by the Department of Human Services.
On the morning of the shooting, Ashley Kendall obtained a restraining order against her husband and then made an evening appointment to see an attorney about a divorce, Frasier said.
She was shot about 8:30 p.m.
Travis Kendall was convicted three times of violated a restraining order against a previous girlfriend, who he lived with from 2004 to 2007, Frasier said.
They, too, had a child.
This is the second death in less than a week in Coos County. On Friday, police found the body of a Coquille woman who was strangled to death and buried in rugged terrain near the town. Her brother-in-law faces murder charges in her death.
Frasier said the county is struggling to keep up with back-to-back death investigations.
"It's very taxing on the limited resources that we have to deal with incidents like this," he said.
Lynne Terry
lynneterry@news.oregonian.com
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