A 34-year-old man shot his 4-year-old daughter in the head Thursday before he turned the gun on himself, Portland police said.

An autopsy showed that both Maribella Willard and her father, Jesse Willard, died of single gunshot wounds to the head.

They were discovered when Maribella's mother, whose name is Stephanie Petix Willard, according to public records, returned home from work as an acupuncturist. Her older daughter was not home at the time of the shooting, police said.

Detectives learned that Jesse Willard had been struggling with mental health issues.



Mia Sires was heading home along North Lombard on Thursday night and was behind an ambulance that ended up heading to the street where she lives, North Houghton.

"It stopped in front of Jess and Stephanie's house," Sires said.

She saw EMTS go into the home. "Within three minutes, one of the EMTs came out just crying," Sires recalled.

She and other neighbors were afraid something horrible had happened to the little girl they knew lived in the home.

"Everyone was asking, 'Have you seen the little girl? Is the little girl OK? " Sires said.

When they heard she was found dead inside the house, Sires said, "All you could hear was a gasp, silence."

Police led Stephanie Willard, who had found her husband's and daughter's bodies, to Sires' house across the street to use the bathroom.

"She was white as a sheet," Sires said. "She was hunched over, shaking, just crying. She couldn't stand up on her own. Two police officers were guiding her everywhere."

Police asked Sires if she could watch the Willard's two dogs, a German Shepherd mix and Boston Terrier, and she said yes. Sires said she used to walk her own dog by the family's house. She said Jess "always seemed like a loving father."

He wasn't a parent who'd sit and watch his daughter play, she said, adding, "He was always playing with her. I think that's why we're all so shocked."

Slobodan Radosevic and his wife, Otilija Radosevic, who live next door, said Willard usually was at home with the two girls during the day. The older girl apparently was Willard's stepdaughter, neighbors said.

"He was always polite, respectful, playing outside with the kids," said Slobodan Radosevic.

The couple said they never heard screaming or yelling come from the house.

"For us, their family life , marriage looked OK," Slobodan Radosevic said. "We didn't notice any problems."

"You never know what's going on inside," Otilija Radosevic added. "I'm still shaking. It's hard to believe."

For help

Police urged that anyone having a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts to contact the

Multnomah County Mental Health Call Center

at 503-988-4888 or to call

Cascadia Behavioral Health

at 503-963-2575. Cascadia has an urgent

walk-in clinic

, open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., 7 days a week. Payment is not necessary.

Lines for Life

is also available 24 hours a day at (503) 972-3456.

Linda Hawkins, who watches her granddaughter each day in a house that sits right behind the Willards' home, said most every day she sees the father and girls walking about the house through their open blinds or sees them playing on the swing and in playhouse in their backyard.

She didn't see them Thursday, she said, figuring that they must be gone for the day.

Thinking of Maribella, she said, "I hope she didn't suffer."

Some residents had heard a woman "howling'' Thursday night from the Willard home, said neighbor Dean Ford.

Ford said he can't wrap his mind around what occurred, because the family seemed "the polar opposite'' of a family where problems might be festering.

Ford said Jess was always outside with his 4-year-old daughter, watching her ride a bike or walking their dogs. Ford said the family had gotten the Boston Terrier for the young girl.

"They just seemed so loving,'' Ford said. "It's such a tragedy.''

Ford, who lives in the same house as Sires and is helping to care for the Willards' dogs, said packaged chicken breasts were left in the dogs' kennels.

Another neighbor, David McKinney, remembered Willard as friendly and that “he always doted on his kids."

"Sometimes he was better with them than I am with mine,” McKinney said.

He said he’s still trying to take in what happened and figure out a way to break the news to his young sons.

Joseph Jordan, a longtime friend of Jesse Willard, declined to comment in detail. But he said that Willard "

was a good man and I loved him. That's all I have to say about it."



Willard was close with Jordan's family. Willard and his wife were among those invited to celebrate a 70th birthday party for Jordan's father, David Jordan, a former city editor

with the Bend Bulletin, according to a posting on David Jordan's Facebook page.

-- Helen Jung, Maxine Bernstein and Lynne Terry