A rural
Newberg man shot and killed his wife this week before turning the
revolver on himself, a state medical examiner found Thursday.
Authorities discovered the bodies of Daniel Joseph Boyd, 47, and
his wife, Dawna Marie Bynum-Boyd, 41, on Wednesday morning together
in a bedroom at their home on Williamson Road about five miles west
of Newberg. Yamhill County Sheriff’s deputy Roy Harrell and Yamhill
Police Chief Gordon Rise found the bodies during a welfare check
shortly after 10 a.m.
“On arriving at the residences ... the officers received no
response to knocks on the doors or calls to the residents,” said
Yamhill County District Attorney Brad Berry in a release. “Officers
entered the home and made the discovery.”
Berry said Boyd didn’t have a criminal record, but added that
interviews with family members and neighbors indicated that the
couple were contemplating divorce.
Investigators set the time of the deaths between Monday evening and
Wednesday morning. Berry said the investigation indicated that
Bynum-Boyd made a transaction Monday evening, although he didn’t
elaborate on the type of transaction.
Daniel Boyd’s daughter from a prior marriage, a student at Oregon
State University, was notified Wednesday evening of the deaths when
friends and family members traveled to Corvallis, Berry said.
Officers were dispatched to the home at 18600 Williamson Road after
officials from Clark County (Vancouver, Wash.) reported Bynum-Boyd
absent from her job there as a community services program director
in the county’s finance and administrator group.
“She was at work on Monday, but did not show up for work on Tuesday
or on Wednesday morning,” said a friend and coworker who asked to
remain anonymous. “We confirmed with Dan Boyd’s boss that he had not
shown up for work (at Portland Bolt) on the same days. At that point
we decided to call the police Wednesday morning.”
Francine Reis, human resources director, said she believed a
manager in the group contacted Yamhill County law enforcement, which
initiated the welfare check. The employees learned of the officers’
discovery Thursday morning.
“Employees are really very saddened and trying to ... come to grips
with this,” Reis said.
Members of the
Yamhill County Major Crime Response Team (MCRT), which includes
officers from the sheriff’s office and police departments from
cities throughout the county, responded Wednesday to the ranch-style
home perched on a hillside in a wooded area about one-quarter mile
south of Highway 240.
The MCRT team remained at the khaki-colored home for most of the
day and authorities were still on site Thursday morning. Employees
from Attrell’s Newberg Funeral Chapel removed the bodies of Boyd and
Bynum-Boyd from their home Wednesday afternoon and delivered them to
the medical examiner’s office in Clackamas. Yamhill County medical
examiner Dr. Bill Koenig conducted the autopsies.
Berry, who was guarded with facts prior to the autopsies,
originally characterized the deaths as a “double fatality.” He
emphasized that evidence at the scene didn’t appear to indicate
there was a community safety risk, but he wouldn’t elaborate on the
nature of the evidence.
Berry said the autopsies, in conjunction with evidence found at the
scene, led investigators to conclude that Bynum-Boyd was killed by
her husband and that Boyd then took his own life. Berry said the
murder weapon was a .38-caliber revolver.
Clark County provided its employees with counselors on Thursday
morning, Bynum-Boyd’s co-worker said.
“Many of us are very shocked by this and very sad,” she said.
“There have been many tears shed in the last two days.”
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