COPS: MAN KILLS MOTHER, SHOPS WITH SEVERED HEAD
Allegedly stabs clerk at grocery store
ESTACADA, Ore. — An Oregon man killed his mother on Mother’s Day at their rural Oregon home, then went to a grocery store carrying what appeared to be a human head and began stabbing a checkout clerk before being subdued, authorities said.
Joshua Webb, 36, was covered in blood, carrying a large “kitchentype” knife and what appeared to be a severed human head when he showed up at the local Thriftway in downtown Estacada, authorities said.
He began stabbing a store employee, but he was quickly overwhelmed by other employees, who held him until police arrived, authorities said.
“He didn’t say anything after he was subdued,” said interim police chief Ernie Roberts. “He was in, like, a catatonic state, wasn’t speaking to anybody.”
The grocery store checkout clerk was hospitalized and was expected to survive.
Police would not say if the mother’s body was decapitated or whether the head the man was carrying belonged to his mother.
An autopsy was underway yesterday on the body of Tina Marie Webb, 59, the same day that her son Joshua Lee Webb was booked on charges of murder and attempted murder in the case.
The gruesome chain of events unfolded about 30 miles south of Portland and sent shock waves through Estacada.
David Webb, the father of Joshua Lee Webb, sobbed as he struggled to process his wife’s death and his son’s arrest in one horrible day.
Joshua Webb had vision problems and received Social Security payments, his father said. He lived at home so his parents could care for him, his father said, adding that they had recently bought him a dog because he wanted one.
His mother had said she believed her son was depressed, but David Webb said he never saw any indication of that when he spoke with his son.
“I never foresaw a problem. If I had I would have stopped it,” David Webb said, before bursting into loud sobs during a phone interview with The Associated Press. “I just can’t believe I lost my wife and son in one day. ... I don’t know. I wish I did. I wish I had some answers, but I don’t. I waited all my life to retire with my wife, and now I can’t. That’s all I know.”