Marine, caregiver, Dad: Mysterious death of Gary Baechler

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Tammie Baechler got a tattoo with her brother’s ashes. Pamella Baechler wears a necklace with her son’s ashes.

“I can’t remember his voice,” Pamella said. “I just want to hear his voice again.”

Both of them still feel the sudden and still-unsolved killing of Gary Baechler inside the Southeast Portland home where he cared for his grandmother until she needed a care facility.

The mysterious death of Gary Baechler

On February 28, 2016, Gary Baechler was found shot to death inside his grandmother’s home on SE 110th Avenue in Portland. He’d been living there for several years.

At the time of his death he was living at the house alone and the family was in the process of selling it.

“He ended up moving all his stuff downstairs into one room, where, incidentally, it happened,” Tammie told KOIN 6 News. 

Gary, who was 48, was found in his basement bedroom.

“It’s very odd, especially since there was no forced entry,” she said. “You would have to really know the layout of the house to know where that room was. And Gary was one that never kept a door unlocked. Somebody was in that house by invitation.“

But who? Why would someone take his life? Family members say it just doesn’t make sense.

“He loved being a Marine,” Pamella said. Gary also loved riding motorcycles and being a dad to his now-16-year-old daughter, who was living with her mom at the Oregon coast at the time.

“She misses him with all her heart,” Pamella told KOIN 6 News.

So does Tammie.

“I got a tattoo with his ashes in it. All the black is his ashes,” she said. “The last time I saw him was at my wedding, the last time I hugged him. I don’t get that anymore.”

For Gary’s family, answers would mean everything. They’re holding out hope someone with information will come forward to the Portland police.

“The Lord says you need to forgive, and I have. But I also want justice for my son,” Pamella said. “It’s just I need justice for my son and somebody is holding all of this inside. And at some point, at some point, they’re going to have to let go of it. Let them do it now.”

Once they get answers, Pamella knows what she will do.

“I have his urn. I will bury him when we find out who did it.”