‘CLOSE THIS CHAPTER’

Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Killing Woman and 3-Year-Old Son

Michael Wolfe pleaded guilty on Friday to murdering both his 3-year-old son and the boy’s mother after she took him to court to prove he was the father.

An Oregon man pleaded guilty Friday to murdering both his 3-year-old son and the child’s mother in 2019, Yamhill County District Attorney Brad Berry told KGW8. Karissa Alyn Fretwell, 25, and her son William had been missing since May 14, 2019 and police didn’t find their bodies hidden in the woods until June. Two months before their deaths, Karissa took Michael Wolfe, 52, to court to prove he was William’s father, where he was ordered to pay about $900 in monthly child support. Berry said police had enough evidence to arrest Wolfe in late May 2019 for the kidnapping and murder of both the mother and son. When their bodies were recovered, police found that Karissa died from being shot in the head, but Billy’s cause of death will “remain undetermined,” according to Berry. Wolfe pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder and one count of second degree murder without the possibility of the death penalty. Each charge carries a mandatory life sentence, and Wolfe’s sentencing is set for July 20. “I think it’s a very good thing for the family to know what’s going to happen as to the end result. In these type of tragic cases, I don’t think there’s ever closure for the family; this just is a move to close this chapter,” Berry said.