Three dead in Murphys double murder, suicide

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Slaying victims Alex and Macaila Marshall were students at Bret Harte Union High School in Angels Camp. Alex was a member of the school's football team.Dana M. Nichols/The Record

By Dana M. Nichols

also by Zachary K. Johnson

Record Staff Writers

February 04, 2013 12:00 AM

MURPHYS - Calaveras County residents responded with shock and grief Sunday as they learned that a Little League coach, author and former airline pilot had shot his two teenage children to death and then turned the gun on himself at their home in one of the region's most exclusive neighborhoods.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office reported Sunday that deputies who arrived at the home on Sandalwood Drive in the Forest Meadows neighborhood of Murphys found Phillip Marshall, 54, dead in a pool of blood inside the front door.

His children, Alex Marshall, 17, and Macaila Marshall, 14, were dead on a couch. All had been shot once in the head with a handgun.

The family dog, also shot to death, was found in a bedroom.

Both teens were students at Bret Harte Union High School in Angels Camp.

Merita Callaway, the Calaveras County supervisor who represents the Murphys area, lives five doors away from the Marshalls' home in the Forest Meadows subdivision. Callaway said she socialized often with Phillip Marshall.

"He would go for walks and he would stop by the house, and we would have coffee and jabber," Callaway said.

"He was over at my house on (Jan. 21). Then I saw him the 23rd at the clinic (in Arnold)."

Callaway said Marshall appeared to be a loving parent and had coached his son's Little League team. She said she was still in shock Sunday afternoon but had not yet been able to cry about the killings.

"I can't, because I don't understand it. My chest hurts. I have a headache," Callaway said.

Callaway said it was young friends of Alex and Macaila who became worried that they had not had a phone call or text message in several days who went to the Marshall home Saturday.

They were the ones who saw Phillip Marshall lying inside the front door and alerted the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. Deputies arrived about 3:10 p.m. Saturday.

Sean Marshall, the estranged wife of Phillip Marshall and the mother of Alex and Macaila, was traveling in Turkey. The Sheriff's Office was able to notify her, and she was on her way back to California on Sunday, Callaway said.

The Sheriff's Office statement said investigators did not know the motive for the slayings.

Sunday evening, Bret Harte Union High School Principal Michael Chimente was at work with his counseling staff planning for today.

Chimente said staff would meet to discuss the plan first thing in the morning, and that the school's library would be closed for the week so it can serve as a place for staff, students and parents to grieve and meet with counselors.

Chimente said he knew Alex and Macaila but had never met Phillip Marshall.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family," Chimente said. "And now our immediate concerns are helping our students understand this tragedy that has occurred."

Alex Marshall's teammates on the Bret Harte football team gathered at coach Scott Edwards' home throughout the day Sunday, as they would during the season.

Edwards said the high school junior always had a smile on his face, even when he told his coach he needed to go to the doctor for what turned out to be a broken clavicle. He missed some games but he came back.

"He was just so outgoing and lighthearted and just fun to be around," Edwards said, adding that Alex was able to connect with many people and groups of people on the small campus.

"This is going to be hard on our community," he said.

On Sunday, posts such as "I miss you so much already" and "rest in peace" appeared in the comments sections of photos on what appeared to be Macaila Marshall's account on the Instagram photo-sharing website. It's a collection of mostly whimsical pictures, including one posted Jan. 28. Macaila snapped a photo in a mirror as her brother pointed a blow dryer at her while making a face.

She also posted about being injured in a recent golf-cart accident in a picture of a pair of scraped legs.

Callaway said she had been told by Phillip Marshall when they met Jan. 23 that he was taking Macaila to get treatment for an injured ankle.

On Twitter, Macaila posted Jan. 25: "Would it be wrong if I threw my cat with his claws retracted at my dads face right now?"

Forest Meadows is an upscale, gated golf course residential community that sits in heavy forests between Murphys and Arnold. Sunday afternoon, a guard at the front gate of Forest Meadows said he was turning away camera crews seeking to visit the Sandalwood Drive home.

In addition to Callaway, Forest Meadows is home to a former county administrative officer, a prominent developer and a number of doctors, attorneys and other professionals.

Marshall formerly was a pilot on some of the world's largest passenger planes, flying first for Eastern Airlines and later for United, according to information posted on Amazon.com in connection to several of his books.

Marshall's works include "Lakefront Airport," a novel published in 2003. The Amazon blurb for his book said it was based on his experience as a contract pilot during the Iran-Contra affair in the early 1980s.

His more recent title published in early February 2012, is "The Big Bamboozle: 9/11 and the War on Terror." That work details Marshall's theory that it was not al-Qaida but actually officials in the U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments that orchestrated the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Callaway said that she and many others stand ready to support Sean Marshall in any way they can.

"If you could, just put in how the community is also bearing some of the pain," Callaway said.

Chimente said efforts are under way to organize some kind of memorial service for Alex and Macaila, possibly as soon as Saturday.

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/calaverasblog.

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/johnsonblog.