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Mother shoots her daughter, then self in murder-suicide pact

PORTLAND, Ore. - A mother fatally shot her daughter then herself in a planned murder-suicide after they locked themselves inside the mother's home in southern Oregon, authorities said.

The bodies of 50-year-old Jeanette Marie Kimball and 29-year-old Marie Catherine Combee were found Wednesday by Kimball's husband after he returned to the couple's Eagle Point home from a fishing trip, police said.

The women left a note indicating the deaths were planned, police Chief David Strand said. "I know that the daughter and (mother) were very close," he said.

The bodies were found in the master bedroom, and the evidence showed that Kimball had pulled the trigger, Strand said. The women had locked the back door and lodged a chair underneath the front doorknob to keep anyone from entering, he said.

Strand said the mother had been distressed over her finances. He described the daughter - who lived with her husband in a nearby town - as an unhappy person who "didn't want to be in this world any longer."

Neighbor Beverly Lamb said a For Sale sign had gone up in front of the Kimballs' home on more than one occasion, only to be removed after a few days.

"I knew that she had some problems," Lamb said. "I just don't understand how her daughter could go along with it."

Eagle Pass is about 280 miles south of Portland.

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 01:17:39]