Marji Hamm, Jerry Bremer’s older sister, said her brother Randy Bremer called her Sunday morning and only said that there’d been an emergency. He told her to come to the family farmhouse on South Barlow Road.
Marji and her husband Vernon Hamm, of Aurora, learned of the family massacre when they arrived Sunday morning.
“We just feel numb,’’ Marji Hamm said. “We have a lot of questions that need to be resolved, hopefully with time.’’
So far they know what authorities have told them: Mark Leo Gregory Gago, 42, killed his mother Pamela Denise Bremer, 64, and his stepdad Jerry Bremer, 66, in an attack Saturday night at the home they shared. Authorities say Gago, 42, also killed his girlfriend, Shaina E. Sweitzer, 31, and 9-month-old daughter, Olivia Lynn Rose Gago. A roommate, Tracy Burbank, and an 8-year-old girl survived. Burbank ran next door for help and told a neighbor that Gago had attacked the family with an ax.
The rampage ended when Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies fatally shot Gago.
Marji Hamm’s brother grew up at the family dairy farm, adjacent to what’s now called Bremer’s Corner. Their father, Warren Bremer, 94, still lives in the family home.
Jerry Bremer had worked at the family’s dairy farm and for Wilco Farm Stores in the past, but he suffered several strokes in recent years and was receiving disability benefits. He got around by electric scooter at the home he shared with Gago and his girlfriend on South Barlow Road near Woodburn, his sister said.
Marji Hamm said Jerry Bremer and his wife, Pam, had “occasional fights’’ with Gago “because they lived together, but it didn’t seem anything out of the norm.’’
Sheryle Funk, Pam Bremer’s older sister, said she hadn’t talked to her sibling or Mark Gago in a few weeks and said she was at a loss for how things turned deadly.
“They’ve had their ups and downs like any parent and child, but they’ve been good people,” Funk said during a brief conversation with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The sibling said Allan Gago, Pam Bremer’s ex-husband and Mark Gago’s father, called her the morning of the killings and informed her of what happened. She said he told her that “everyone was dead” and that “Mark went on a rampage.”
Funk described Pam Bremer as “a good sister and a good mom who went out and would do anything for anybody.”
“She was good to her son,” Funk said.
Vernon Hamm said he had driven Mark Gago to his new job on Friday. Mark Gago had previously attended classes at Chemeketa Community College. On Friday, he started job training in mechanics at an auto dealership in the Salem area, Vernon Hamm said. He also said he knew Mark Gago grew marijuana at the Barlow Road property.
Vernon Hamm picked Mark Gago up at his Woodburn home around 10 a.m., and got him to the Salem dealership by 11 a.m.
“He seemed to be OK at that point,’’ Vernon Hamm recalled.
Mark Gago had a car of his own, but the engine was going bad. On the ride that Friday, Mark Gago talked with Vernon Hamm about how the dealership was going to provide him with a car so he could get back and forth, Vernon Hamm said. Mark Gago also talked about plans to get a house or a subsidized apartment in west Salem with Sweitzer, the Hamms said.
After learning of the violent killings, the Bremer siblings informed their 94-year-old father Warren Bremer, who suffers from the onset of dementia, that his son had died but didn’t share the details.
“We just told him his son had passed away,’’ Marji Hamm said.
Marji Hamm said Mark Gago often talked about his daughter, 9-month-old Olivia, whom police say he killed, and an 8-year-old who is Sweitzer’s daughter from a previous relationship.
“He was very proud of his girls. He would show pictures of them on his telephone,’’ Hamm said. “He bragged about his family.’’
Authorities say when they fatally shot Mark Gago, he was attempting to kill the 8-year-old.
Molly Young and Everton Bailey Jr. of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report.
— Maxine Bernstein
Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.