Ashland Police Department Initial Report, Terry Martin Carr, at American Buddha Online Library

ASHLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT INITIAL REPORT

by Ashland Police Department

Page One

Ashland Police Department
Case Number 05-2581
Initial
Primary Crime/Incident: MISSING PERSON -- JUVENILE
Location of Offense: 1475 Siskiyou Bl -- PC MARKET OF CHOICE
Status: Closed
Distribution: Lake Co. S.D.
Date/Time Reported Date/Time Occurred: 080105/ 1054 OCC - 173105 / 1414
Name Last First Middle: CARR CHIKAKO M
Also Known As: CHIKA
Home Address: BLANKED OUT
Home Phone: BLANKED OUT
Sex: F
Race: W
Date of Birth: 021155
Reporting Officer Name
BRENT JENSEN
BPSST# 14049
Reporting Officer Signature: Brent Jensen
Date / Time of Report: 090705
Approved By: Initials

Page Two

ASHLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT
1155 E. Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-5211 fax: 541-488-5351

CASE NUMBER: 05-2581
CONNECT CASE: LCSO 05-080011
DATE/TIME REPORTED: 080105 / 1054
PRIMARY INCIDENT: MISSING PERSON -- JUVENILE
DATE / TIME OCCURRED: 073105 / 1414
LOCATION: 1475 SISKIYOU BL.
DATE OF THIS REPORT: 090705
SUMMARY

At 2:14 p.m. on Sunday, July 31, 2005, 62-year-old Terry Martin Carr surreptitiously abandoned his wife, 50-year-old Chikako Carr, at the Market of Choice at 1475 Siskiyou Boulevard, taking their 9-year-old daughter, Arieka, with him in their blue 2002 Jeep Cherokee. The bodies of Terry Carr and Arieka were later found at 1:00 p.m. on August 1, 2005 in the Jeep on a convenience store parking lot in Clearlake, California. The Lake County (CA) Sheriff's Office, in coordination with the Lake County (CA) Coroner's Office, concluded that Carr had suffered a fatal heart attack in the jeep and fell onto his daughter who, due to the extreme differences in their size and strength, was unable to get out from underneath his body and died of mechanical asphyxiation.

MENTIONED

C/ CARR, Chikako Matsumoto -- O/F 021155 [BLANKED OUT] no phone

V/ [BLANKED OUT] -- W/F [BLANKED OUT] no phone

I/ CARR, Terry Martin -- W/M 022243 [BLANKED OUT] no phone

I/ CUNNINGHAM, Charles Pete -- W/M Myrtle Grove RV Park Myrtle Point, OR 541-439-2208

I/ FISHER, Dan -- W/M Market of Choice Security 488-2773 cell/ 541/228-1783

I/ PAULICH, Corey -- W/M Detective, Lake County (CA) Sheriff's Office 707-262-4231 cell/ 707-272-7112

I/ ANDREWS, Tom -- W/M Detective, Lake County (CA) Sheriff's Office 707-262-4237

I/ CARR, John Franklin -- W/M 111046 11055 E. State Highway 20, Clearlake CA 707-998-0315 cell/ 650-787-2110

I/ CARR, Vicki -- W/F 082047 11055 E. State Highway 20, Clearlake CA 707-998-0315 cell/ 650-787-2110

DETECTIVE BRENT JENSEN #14049

Page Three

ASHLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT
1155 E. Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-5211 fax: 541-488-5351

At 10:54 a.m. on Monday, August 1, 2005, Chikako Carr called police to report that her husband, Terry, had left her at Market of Choice the day before and taken their 9-year-old [BLANKED OUT] with him in their Jeep. She had no seen or heard from them since and so, after waiting a day, called the police. The case was initially assigned to Officer Steve MacLennan, but when Master Sergeant Teresa Selby advised me of the report, I asked that it be reassigned to me. Officer MacLennan briefed me on his initial interview, and then the two of us met with Mrs. Carr for additional details.

Carr told us that she and her husband had moved to Oregon with their daughter after being "fed up" with the big city life. They had hoped to settle in Powers and had all of the belongings trucked there, but after staying in a motel for three weeks in Myrtle Point and looking a property, they decided Powers was too remote for their liking. After a week of "vacation" on the northern California coast, they came to Ashland. After three nights at the Timbers Motel, they rented a three-bedroom apartment at the Ashlander Apartments on July 29, 2005. Carr said they were happy to be in Ashland, found the city a "comfortable" fit for their lifestyle, and nothing appeared amiss.

On July 31st, the three of them went to Market of Choice at around 1:30 p.m. to get something to eat and "beat the heat." She stepped into the bathroom at the back of the store for about two minutes and when she emerged, Terry and [BLANKED OUT] were gone. She looked throughout the store and checked the parking lot, but they were nowhere to be found. She went back to the apartment, noting that they had not returned their since leaving her, and waited a day before notifying the police. She told us that Terry had never done anything like this before and was not suffering from anything physically or mentally that might explain his actions.

Mrs. Carr did not know the license number of their Jeep so I returned to research the number myself. During the investigation, I learned that a teletype had been sent on the 29th by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office requesting information concerning a man who had thrown numerous personal belongings from a Jeep while stopped near a fenced pasture on West Butler Lane off of South Valley View just north of Exit 19. I later connected this incident with the Carr's. Chikako Carr told me that she had been with Terry and [BLANKED OUT] that afternoon after they had rented their apartment when Terry abruptly stopped and threw several bags containing new and used clothing and personal files from the Jeep. She believed he had done this as part of their "fresh start" away from the big city life, although admitted she was somewhat distressed that he had thrown away, in addition to his own clothing, numerous pieces of clothing belonging to her and [BLANKED OUT]. She also later told police that Terry had cut up his credit cards and thrown them into a dumpster and earlier had thrown their cell phone out of the moving car window.

Page Four

ASHLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT
1155 E. Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-5211 fax: 541-488-5351

Officer MacLennan and I drove Mrs. Carr to the South Valley Community Human Resources center in the Ashland Shopping Center to connect her with staff to obtain food stamps. On the way, she pointed out the dumpster in which Terry had tossed his credit cards. After dropping her off, we returned to the dumpster to search it for the cards and anything else he may've tossed. We did not find the destroyed cards, but Officer MacLennan found a shotgun in a gun box under the dumpster that appeared to be new. It was later traced to Big 5 sporting goods where records showed it had been sold several years ago to Terry Carr of Los Angeles. Mrs. Car later confirmed that Terry owned a shotgun and she had watched him stuff it under the dumpster.

I was able to locate the California license number for the Carr's Jeep and sent a teletype out that afternoon to all law enforcement agencies in Oregon and California requesting an attempt to locate to ascertain the welfare of the Carr's 9-year-old [BLANKED OUT].

The next day, I met with store security personnel at Market of Choice and watched about an hour of surveillance camera footage which showed the three Carrs entering the store together and spending most of their time at the seating area near the deli counter. This are of the store cannot be viewed by the cameras, so what transpired there is not known. Occasionally, however, the Carrs, and in particular Terry and [BLANKED OUT] can be seen wandering about the store, visiting the drinking fountains, selecting produce, etc. Finally, while Mrs. Carr is in the Deli area, Carr and his daughter go nonchalantly through the check stand, paying for a few items, and then walk casually out of the store, get into the Jeep, and drive north out of the parking lot. There is nothing on the tape to suggest that [BLANKED OUT] left against her will.

Later that morning, I drove Mrs. Carr to US Bank and assisted her in accessing her bank accounts to determine how much money she had been left with. We discovered that her husband possibly had other credit cards through Capital One that she didn't know about. On August 3rd, I contacted staff with Capital One in an effort to track Carr's movements since his disappearance through ATM transactions or point-of-sale purchases with those cards. I learned that investigators in Lake County (CA) had contacted Capital One the day before, looking for information about Mrs. Carr, as they were working a possible murder-suicide case involving Mr. Carr.

I learned from Lake County Sheriff's Detective Corey Paulich that the bodies of Carr and his daughter were found in their Jeep in the parking lot of a convenience store in Clear Oaks (CA) on the first at about 1 p.m. by store employees. Detective Paulich had notified Carr's brother in nearby Clear Lake (CA) of the discovery and had learned from the brother that Mrs. Carr was traveling with the other two. I briefed Detective Paulich of my investigation and later, assisted by a police chaplain and a counselor from Jackson County Mental Health made the death notification to Mrs. Carr. With her consent, I took her to the mental health unit at Rogue Valley Medical Center so she had somewhere safe to spend the night.

Page Five

ASHLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT
1155 E. Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 541-482-5211 fax: 541-488-5351

The next day, August 4th, Mrs. Carr's brother-in-law and his wife arrived from Clear Lake and the three of us went to Medford and picked up Mrs. Carr. I returned the three of them to Ashland and the family stayed together in Mrs. Carr's apartment for the remained of the week until the following Monday. During that time, I met often with the three and assisted them in helping Mrs. Carr cope with her loss.

The subsequent coroner's report filed later that month found absolutely no evidence of foul play to neither body nor toxins in either system. The official cause and manner of death was listed as natural for Carr, due to a heart attack and accidental to [BLANKED OUT] due to mechanical asphyxiation. The bodies had been found "back-to-back" with Carr on top of his daughter and it is believed that the two were sleeping in the back of the Jeep and Carr rolled over sometime during his heart attack onto his sleeping daughter and his 200-plus pounds was more than the 55-pound nine-year-old could dislodge.

ATTACHMENTS

Numerous related news articles
Lake County Sheriff's Department report
Jackson County Sheriff's Department

ACTION RECOMMENDED

Investigation discontinued.

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