I've bolded a couple of points
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Questions unanswered in deaths of family
03/18/02
JIM TANKERSLEY
and RANDY LEMMERMAN
McMINNVILLE -- A stream of drivers rolled past the house where Robert Bryant took the lives of his wife and four children before killing himself, turning the crime scene into a tourist attraction Sunday.
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Several stopped, but no one approached the home on Pheasant Hill Lane. By midafternoon, neighbors said, traffic on the rural road was much heavier than usual.
A sheriff's cruiser drove by periodically.
Yellow crime tape still surrounded the double-wide manufactured home, whose front door remained boarded shut. But Norm Hand, the Yamhill County sheriff, said detectives were finished examining the scene.
"It's still looking fairly clear that it's a murder-suicide," Hand said Sunday. He said detectives were interviewing relatives and former neighbors of the Bryants to rule out all other possibilities.
It was at the home, a few miles west of the city limits, that Robert Bryant used a 12-gauge shotgun sometime after 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 to carry out one of the worst mass killings in recent Oregon history. Sheriff's deputies discovered the bodies Thursday.
Robert and Janet Bryant were both 37. Clayton was 15; Ethan, 12; Ashley, 9; and Alyssa, 8. They had moved to the McMinnville area from California last summer.
Investigators still have not confirmed a motive for the killings, but Janet Bryant's sister has suggested that Robert Bryant, a self-employed landscaper, might have been trying to keep his children away from his parents and other relatives in California.
The Bryants had become es tranged from Robert's family after breaking with their Jehovah's Witnesses congregation three years ago in Shingle Springs, Calif., a rural community about 40 miles east of Sacramento.
During the Sunday meeting of that congregation, there was little mention of the Bryants. John Parish, overseer of the congregation, said at the end of a 55-minute service: "I think everyone's aware of the tragedy the Bryant family has had to face. Our sorrows and prayers are with the Bryant family."
About 60 people attended, some of whom said after the service that they were sorry to learn of the deaths.
At McMinnville's Kingdom Hall, members of the congregation have struggled with the news of the deaths as well as talk about Jehovah's Witnesses in the press and in the community, said Fred Harshman, a church leader.
"Who enjoys negative publicity?" Harshman said. "Jehovah God does not take delight in this kind of tragedy. For us, it's kind of like when you have a relative you haven't seen in years and then you hear something bad. We'd have loved to have (Robert) here. We have an open door policy."
From his Shingle Springs home, Aaron Bryant, Robert's brother, wouldn't talk about the tragedy.
"There's much to take care of," he said. "In time we will talk. We ask for your patience."
A public memorial service is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Bethel Baptist Church, 325 Baker Creek Road in McMinnville. Staff writers Maxine Bernstein and Kate Taylor contributed to this report.
You can reach Jim Tankersley at 503-294-5976 or by e-mail at [email protected].
You can reach Randy Lemmerman at 503-294-5967 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Copyright 2002 Oregon Live. All Rights Reserved.
- Nathan Natas, UADNA
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America)