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The claim was remarkable – unmarked graves in Salem’s largest homeless encampment.

Marion County Commissioner Colm Willis twice in recent months suggested that murder victims were hidden away in Wallace Marine Park.

The eyebrow-raising claim arose as Marion County officials pressured Salem city officials to act more aggressively against those camped at the park.

But an investigation by Salem Reporter established that it was a claim Willis and the county can’t back up.

Willis now acknowledges that he relied on hearsay.

Marion County officials won’t release any documents about bodies in the public park. They said they had one public record about the source of the claim but were going to keep it confidential.

The matter raises issues of credibility. Public officials rely on community trust and support to advance their agendas. False claims about major public safety issues can cause needless alarm.

Marion County has no control over the park, which is in another county. The policing agencies that do report they have no idea what Willis and his colleagues are referring to. 

The confusion comes as county commissioners try to flex their political muscles to bend Salem to their will.

Marion County officials say the West Salem encampment is such a danger to the community – and a drain on resources – that it has to be shut down. 

County officials have offered no substantive suggestions for what to do with the roughly 150 people living in the park. Instead, Willis and others have said that better collaboration would yield faster and more-effective results. That includes better data sharing between agencies, a suggestion they made after manipulating crime statistics obtained from the Salem Police Department’s database without permission.

The hard-nosed approach to homelessness comes as the three commissioners are in the midst of personal political campaigns. Willis and Commissioner Kevin Cameron are seeking reelection while Commissioner Danielle Bethell is running for governor.

The idea that Wallace Marine Park was a place with murder victims buried in the park soil emerged late last year.

Last December, the Marion County commissioners convened an unprecedented joint meeting of Marion, Polk and Salem city leaders about Wallace Marine Park. Leaders from other agencies say they hadn’t been consulted about the session’s content, only the subject of it. The attendees included Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack and Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton.

The meeting was part of Marion County’s push to be tougher on crime at the camp. County officials said that the impact of the camp bleeds across the river and into services in Marion County’s jurisdiction and budget, from behavioral health to addiction services to law enforcement.

Willis read from a presentation flashed on screen, a PowerPoint bearing the logo of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. He scrolled through crime statistics. He then read a line, placed in bold on the screen.

“A witness indicated there is a lot of talk about bodies buried in the park, and there are rumored to have been at least four murders,” he said.

Each attendee received a printed version of the presentation – 22 slides labeled “UNCLASSIFIED” at the top. The more gruesome anecdotes were put in bold letters, including a claim that “Screams go unheard as there is constant screaming.” 

Willis shared the presentation again a month later, this time before the Marion County Public Safety Coordinating Council. The council includes 35 leaders in law enforcement, service organizations, government and the community. The presentation was also posted publicly on the Marion County website.

Willis repeated the line about bodies in the park, seeming to imply there were unsolved murders.

His slideshow depicted the park as a place with unchecked, rampant crime. It included evocative anecdotes about theft, drug use and the rape of women and children.

Over two months, Salem Reporter sought to trace the county’s claim. But Willis and his partner in the presentation, Sheriff Nick Hunter, declined interviews. They responded to written questions with general statements but no answers. And the county responded to public records requests not with proof about park bodies but instead assertions that every relevant document was confidential.

Recorded deaths in the park

There have been murders in the park – nearly all investigated to conclusion by the Salem Police Department. 

In one instance in 2024, one person was shot to death. In another, a teen was stabbed to death at the park’s boat dock. Their bodies were recovered. One homicide case from 2022 remains open.

In 2025, a camper was shot and killed in the park. Police also investigated three other deaths that year, none involving criminal conduct. In each instance, the body was recovered.

When a Wallace camper dies, those who work in the park said it’s not uncommon to see a memorial appear, with tokens left behind to remember the person who died after their body has been taken away.

“There is no pending case or investigation within the district attorney’s office regarding bodies buried within the confines of Wallace Marine Park – or anywhere within Polk County for that matter,” said Aaron Felton, Polk County’s district attorney.

Sgt. Jon Hardy, spokesman for the Salem Police Department, said his agency couldn’t help track the source of Willis’ claim without more details from Marion County.

Salem Reporter in late January asked Marion County for public records that would establish the source and accuracy of the county’s claim.

County officials initially said they had records on that, but would keep them confidential to protect a criminal investigation. They then said they’d erred, and that the records could not be shared for other reasons, including confidentiality requirements and attorney-client privilege. 

“There is no pending case or investigation within the district attorney’s office regarding bodies buried within the confines of Wallace Marine Park – or anywhere within Polk County for that matter.”

Aaron Felton, Polk County district attorney

Salem Reporter then requested on Feb. 9 emails that related to the presentation, and all of Willis’ emails that contained the phrase “Wallace Marine Park” since September 2025. Marion County released his emails, which were largely about organizing a January meeting where it would be presented. The county also disclosed a copy of the PowerPoint.

None of it addressed the claim about bodies at the park. Of the records, the county withheld the entire body of a Dec. 2 email from Willis to the county’s operations manager.

Jon Heynen, Marion County communications manager, said the documents required seven hours of computer searching and an hour of legal review. The county charged Salem Reporter half the cost – $333 – to produce the handful of documents.

In March, Salem Reporter sought public records for any and all written information supporting the statement about the bodies from Sheriff Nick Hunter’s agency and the county commissioners. The request included questions about who the witness was, who interviewed them and documentation of what was said.

Willis then said in an email to Salem Reporter on March 23 that the claim was “a statement of unattributed hearsay by a witness.” 

He did not address a request for an interview, instead referring questions to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

“As to the source of any witness statements, since the report shows that witnesses in the park are threatened with physical violence, and since one of the victims was subject to repeated rape, I would hope and trust that the sheriff’s office would protect the identity of those witnesses and follow their usual standards for criminal investigations,” Willis wrote.

Heynen said the sheriff’s office had one document relating to the witness statement. Though the county by law could disclose the record, Heynen said the county was keeping it confidential.

Hunter declined an interview, and sent a one-page statement on April 20 in response to Salem Reporter’s written questions.

“I am declining to participate in this interview as it would be inappropriate for me to speak on a location not within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office,” Hunter said. 

He went on to say that  Wallace Marine Park “needs to be appropriately interrupted and removed for overall community safety and livability.”

He said his staff works within Marion County with people in encampments, people experiencing a mental health crisis and with substance use disorders. He said they aim to stabilize the unsheltered residents while reducing their chances of being arrested.

“It would be inappropriate for me to speak on a location not within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office”

Marion County Sheriff Nick Hunter

Hunter said that he had been asked to provide data relevant to Wallace Marine Park ahead of the meeting. He said that the statement about the buried bodies was obtained “during data collection,” without specifying where.

He continued by saying that campers are less likely to report such crimes due to fear of retribution.

“The use of the word ‘rumored’ should convey or indicate to the reader or audience that these incidents are being alleged or unreported, which is consistent with the other content of the slide involving punishment and social rules associated with the unsheltered and unregulated community,” he wrote.

Willis in his email to Salem Reporter distanced himself from his own presentation.

“It is certainly something law enforcement should look into, but it would be inaccurate to say that anyone is making a claim that there are bodies buried at the park. I never did so, and neither did the sheriff’s office,” he said.

Provided draft excerpts of this story ahead of publication, Willis and Hunter responded by saying there were inaccuracies. They didn’t respond when asked to specify the errors and provide correct information.

Willis defended the county’s actions. He said his goal is to end unregulated homeless camping at Wallace and direct campers toward services. 

“Any suggestion that our efforts in this regard have been motivated by anything other than our sincere concern for the victims of serious crimes in Wallace Marine Park and the safety of our community is false,” Willis said. 

The data heist

Much of the information presented in the slideshow was not the work of county commissioners or the sheriff.

It appears to have been largely taken from the Salem Police Department, using special computer access granted to Marion County officials for an unrelated purpose.

Last year, representatives of the Marion County Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s offices met with the Salem Police Department regarding a new collaboration on gun violence, gang activity and drug crimes. The Salem agency opted to give a sheriff’s crime analyst temporary, direct access to its internal data system as the project developed.

County officials subsequently used that access to get statistics for another purpose – demonstrating the dangers at Wallace Marine Park.

“Following that meeting, there was no further communication between the Salem Police Department and Marion County officials regarding any data reviewed or its use in the (Wallace Marine Park) presentation. Additionally, the information used in the presentation was not vetted or discussed with Salem Police personnel or staff prior to its inclusion in the slideshow,” Hardy said in an email. 

Leaders of the Salem Police Department didn’t learn their data had been used for the Wallace Marine Park slideshow until Willis began his public presentation Dec. 2.

Tension in the room was palpable as Marion County leaders questioned Womack’s approach to enforcement at the park. They claimed the city was not keeping enough data on crime at the park – but then presented the Salem Police Department’s data on that matter as their own.

Willis repeatedly tried to corner city officials into responding to the presentation’s claims by committing to a faster clearing of the park’s encampment.

“Should we have a larger conversation about saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t a safe place’ … we say ‘There’s enough evidence that there’s serial criminal activity here, including sexual assault, violent assault,’ that sort of thing, that we pool our resources and say: ‘This isn’t the place for people to live this kind of life,’” Willis said.

Womack agreed that Wallace Marine had serious public health and safety issues but that the people living there needed somewhere to go. The city’s years-long approach has been to work to place someone with shelter or housing ahead of a camp being dismantled.

“There’s 200 people in the woods and the park. How do we go through a process to safely, humanely remove those folks from the park, and keep it clean after that?” Womack said during the meeting. 

City officials reported that the encampment at Wallace has shrunk from around 450 people in 2021 to around 150 people as of early April.

Last November, the Marion County sheriff had raised the specter of clearing Wallace Marine during a public county meeting.

“That community can’t exist anymore. We have to stop that community from existing,” Hunter said.

He said some campers would likely then report crimes that could land some of the camp residents in prison.

“That’s fine. That’s easy,” Hunter said. “Where are some of these other folks going to go?”

He didn’t propose an answer – and apparently hasn’t publicly done so since. He has acknowledged the point that those in the homeless camp would need to be housed somewhere, if the camp were to be cleared. 

“It just doesn’t involve this body and us at this table. It involves Polk County, and the city of Salem. Everybody has to say this is no longer acceptable,” Hunter said at the November meeting.

Marion County’s depiction of the park as unmanaged is exaggerated.

Visits from police and service providers in health care and housing are frequent. The Salem Police Department’s Homeless Service Team is on a first-name basis with many of the campers, and the city’s cleaning team has spent hours talking with park residents. Outreach teams from local shelters and health care organizations make regular visits to provide services, and local volunteers have built connections over years.

City leaders have long said they intend to end camping at Wallace Marine Park, but that doing so will rely on available shelter. Otherwise, years of rapport between campers, the police team and service providers would be broken. That would result in residents scattering across the city to Marion County’s overpasses, downtown Salem and other parks.

Now, Marion County’s pursuit of leading a collaboration between the city of Salem and Polk County has apparently petered out. Staff from all the agencies continue to collaborate, as they have for years, in existing venues that include the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance and monthly service provider meetings that the Salem Police Department has hosted for over five years.

County leaders, however, continue to make veiled criticisms of the city’s management of Wallace Marine Park.

Willis did so most recently in the annual “State of the County” presentation on March 31.

“Before I begin … some of what I’m going to share is probably not appropriate for young children,” he said.

The statistics he shared about the homeless encampment at Wallace Marine Park were likely familiar to anyone who had heard Willis speak about homelessness over the last four months.

He marshaled the anecdotes about violent crime, drug use and rape in the same order as the presentation he’d given to city and county leaders in December and January.

He made one notable omission.

Willis said nothing about bodies buried at the park.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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