Battle Ground double homicide suspect stabbed estranged wife, her new partner, then himself: court records

The suspect in a

double homicide

at a

Battle Ground home

earlier this week suffered self-inflicted knife wounds at the scene, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

Evaristo “Junior” Vela, 40, faces aggravated murder and first-degree domestic-violence charges, the court records show. He is in intensive care at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

Vela’s estranged wife, Tiffany Ober, and a 37-year-old man died of knife wounds in Tuesday’s alleged attack, court documents state.

Battle Ground police officers responded to a call in the 2100 block of NE 2nd Avenue shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday. The caller was screaming that three “people were down” inside the residence, court documents state.

When police arrived, a woman there, Estella Gray, said her brother, Vela, had called her and said he was going to kill himself. Concerned for him and his wife, Gray went to the residence, where she found Ober, 37, on the floor foaming at the mouth and an injured man next to her, court documents state. The injured man would later be identified as Spencer Ray Jones, 37.

Gray then came upon Vela stabbing himself. She took the knife away from him and began to apply pressure to his wounds, according to the affidavit.

A friend of Jones told police that Jones and Ober were in a romantic relationship and that Jones was “the driving force” that fractured Ober and Evaristo Vela’s marriage, according to court records.

The affidavit alleges that detectives later served a search warrant on Vela’s Vancouver house and found knives that matched the one recovered from the scene of the crime.

—Kimberly Cortez covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at


kcortez@oregonian.com

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