TILLAMOOK, Ore., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Oregon police spent their second consecutive Christmas Eve looking for a fugitive suspected of wiping out his entire family for reasons still unknown.
State and federal arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for Edward Morris, 37, Portland, whose pregnant wife and three children were found dead by elk hunters in a remote state forest in the northeast corner of Oregon, not too far from where the bodies of Christian Longo's wife and kids were discovered a year ago. Longo was arrested in Mexico last January and is awaiting trial.
Morris, 37, a struggling roofing contractor, was believed to be on the lam traveling in a 1993 gray Dodge Caravan van with Oregon license WSH 171.
"A federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, filed today in Portland, is based upon a state murder warrant issued in Tillamook County earlier today," FBI Special Agent Charles Matthews said in a brief statement. "Tillamook County authorities charged Morris with several counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife, Renee, and their three children, Bryant, Alexis, and Jonathan Morris."
The 37-year-old seven-months pregnant Mrs. Morris was discovered under a blanket in a snowy, overgrown part of the Tillamook State Forest about 20 miles west of Portland on Saturday, about the same time her family filed a missing persons report after the Morris' failed to return from a trip out of town. Sheriff's deputies that were called to the scene later discovered the bodies of the three children, ages 10, 8 and 4.
Searchers scoured the cold, gloomy forest on Sunday and Monday looking for clues and for any sign of Morris, not knowing at the time if they were looking for another victim or if he was the suspect. They also alerted the Border Patrol at both the Canadian and Mexican borders in the event Morris would become their suspect and attempt to flee the country.
The federal warrant allows the FBI and other agencies to arrest Morris in another state.
"The FBI may obtain the unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant when a fugitive is believed to have crossed state or international borders," Matthews said.
Meanwhile, investigators from Tillamook County traveled to Portland Tuesday to search the modest single-story home where the Morris family had resided. Police closed off the street in front of the house, which was surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape.
Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson said the inspection of the house would likely last well into Christmas Eve.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
