Derek Bratton

Emergency responders were dispatched early to a report of a gunshot wound involving a late-teens female at Webb Lake in Silverton, according to public safety radio traffic monitored by CrimeRadar and The Silverton Independent. Marion County METCOM North-1 Fire channel traffic directed units to respond to a gunshot wound at Webb Lake. Dispatchers described the patient as a late-teens female with a gunshot wound to the head. The location was further specified as the spillway along Hobart Road...

A 20-year-old Kentucky man died after falling nearly 180 feet from a waterfall at Silver Falls State Park while posing for photographs in a closed area, Oregon State Police said. Zachary Nicholas Mertens of Burlington, Kentucky, fell from the top of South Falls around 6:30 p.m. Monday, authorities said. Oregon State Police troopers and Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to reports that someone had fallen from the 177-foot waterfall into the pool below. Investigators determined...

Tonya Smithburg works on the restoration of a mural in downtown Silverton, Oregon. The mural, originally painted by Lori L. Rodrigues, requires extensive surface preparation after years of weather exposure. SILVERTON, Ore. — Local muralist Tonya Smithburg is restoring a weathered historic mural in downtown Silverton, carefully preparing the surface so new paint will adhere through Oregon’s seasons, with the work expected to finish by the end of the month. Smithburg, who balances the project...