Mother’s Day

Joshua Webb lived in rural Colton, Oregon. In the months before May 2017, his behavior grew strange; he talked about being watched and about voices in his head. He had been prescribed antipsychotic medication about a year earlier, though his girlfriend wondered whether he was still taking it, and he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.

On Mother’s Day, May 14, 2017, Webb killed his 59-year-old mother, Tina Webb, at her home and also killed his dachshund, Cooper. His sister found their mother’s body when she arrived for the holiday. By then Webb had driven to the Thriftway grocery store in nearby Estacada, carrying his mother’s head, and stabbed an employee, Mike Wagner, several times. Other employees wrestled Webb down and taped his hands and feet before deputies arrived. Wagner survived.

Webb was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, abuse of a corpse and aggravated animal abuse. Psychiatrists for the defense and the prosecution agreed he had been psychotic at the time. On June 26, 2018, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Robert Herndon found him guilty except for insanity and placed him under the Psychiatric Security Review Board for life. He was sent to the Oregon State Hospital. In October 2024 the board granted him conditional release to a locked treatment center in Umatilla, over objections from prosecutors.