LIVES STOLEN

Oregon Mother Kills Herself and Her Two Children Amid a Bitter Custody Battle

Facing the prospect of shared custody, Ashley Palmer committed the murder-suicide in her Gresham, Oregon apartment earlier this week.

An Oregon mother embroiled in a bitter custody battle killed herself and her two children, aged six and eight, in a murder-suicide this week. When completing a welfare check on Tuesday, Gresham police officers found the three bodies in Palmer’s apartment; all three died of gunshot wounds. After separating from her former spouse, Jenavie Palmer, in 2018, Ashley Palmer was facing the possibility of shared custody. In court, she twice requested an immediate danger order, claiming that her children's safety would be at risk should Jenavie earn partial custody, but her second request was dismissed this February. Jenavie called the police hours before the bodies were found after receiving a troublesome text from her ex, but was told to check on the children in the morning. Jenavie reflected on the loss of her children, saying, “They had their whole lives ahead of them and it was stolen from them.”