By Joyce Hensley

Staff writer

PENDLETON The bodies of two Pendleton women were found Tuesday after what police are desicribing as a murder-suicide.

Katherine Anne Grimsley died Tuesday along a road near the Pendleton Airport when Donna Lea Chavez fired four shots from a .357 caliber revolver at close range.

“She was shot fatally through the heart, and received postmortem wounds to her side and back,” according to information received from Umatilla County District Attorney Christopher Brauer.

Chavez then put the gun to her own temple and fired once, dying instantly, said Brauer.

The two women were found dead around 1:30 p.m. within an arm’s length of one another with the weapon nearby.

Police arrived on the scene after a nearby business heard shots.

“We called in the Major Crime Team,” said Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts, the lead department in the investigation.

No vehicles were parked nearby.

“The two women had been seen walking together shortly before witnesses heard the gunshots,” according to Brauer.

“We know they were friendly,” said Chief Roberts.

The two women had shared a residence in Pendleton.

“The friendship between the two became strained within the last week,” said Brauer.

Police found letters from Chavez to family and friends tucked in her desk where she worked.

“Those letters, dated the same day as the shootings, indicated that Chavez was intending to end her own life, though they made no mention of Grimsley,” said Brauer.

Roberts said there was no indication that drugs were involved in the shooting.

Neither Chavez nor Grimsley had police records, according to Roberts.

Autopsies were performed on the two women Thursday in Portland by the Oregon State Examiner’s Office.

The family members and co-workers of Chavez and Grimsley will receive assistance and grief counseling if they wish, from the Umatilla County Crisis Response Team and The Victim/Witness program of the District Attorney’s Office.

Besides the Pendleton Police, law enforcement officers and emergency departments responding to the shooting included the Pendleton Fire Department; Oregon State Police (OSP); Umatilla Tribal Police; Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office; Hermiston, Pilot Rock, and Milton-Freewater Police Departments; Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office; Umatilla County Medical Examiner; OSP Crime Lab; OSP forensic reconstruction expert and the Pendleton Police Department Reserves.