Crime scene tape is stretched across the front yard of a home along Mountain Sheep Lane in La Pine in December as investigators worked the scene of a murder-suicide. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo)

A search of a La Pine residence where a murder-suicide took place found guns and ammunition throughout the home.

Court documents show the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office searched the double-wide mobile home set in a small, forested community bordering La Pine State Park after a family dispute on the morning of Dec. 21 turned into a grisly shooting that killed two and critically injured a third.

Investigators found that Jeffrey Randle Ford, 56, and his son Jeffrey Thunder Ford, 20, got in a loud verbal dispute, according to the documents. Police had been to the house the day prior to respond to a report of a domestic dispute.

At 11:05 a.m. Dec. 21, the younger Ford called 911 to report his father was pointing a gun at him. During the call, the elder Ford shot his son in the chest. The elder Ford then turned his 9 mm handgun on his son’s girlfriend, Brandi Ann Schopper, 19.

The younger Ford told investigators that he saw his father shoot Schopper before he ran out of the house to call for help. Two neighbors found the younger Ford lying on the frozen street in his underwear, bleeding from the gunshot wound.

The neighbors wrapped him in an old sleeping bag and sheriff’s deputies quickly arrived. The younger Ford was transported by air to St. Charles Bend, where he underwent surgery later that day.

Schopper sustained multiple shots from the 9 mm and died in the house. She was found in a bedroom.

According to police interviews with neighbors who witnessed the scene, the younger Ford said after shooting him and Schopper, the elder Ford went to a motor home parked in the front yard. The next day, the motor home remained in front of the house, with the driver’s side door open and several windows busted out.

The elder Ford eventually went back into the house, where he shot and killed himself in the front room. Police found him with a semi-automatic pistol, court documents show.

The younger Ford’s surgery was successful and he is recovering from the bullet wound.

On Tuesday, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said he did not find evidence that the younger Ford committed a crime, and no charges will be brought.

Police did a full search of the house, recovering three firearms, several spent casings and a supply of unfired ammunition. They took swabs of blood from those involved, as well as from surfaces around the home.

Police found a Hi-Point 9 mm handgun with an empty magazine, a shotgun with one shell in the internal magazine and “hair” on the end of the barrel, as well as a .30-caliber rifle with a case and tripod. Police found seven spent 9 mm casings, a box of 28 rounds and six more loose, unspent rounds in the master bedroom.

A hunting knife was found on the living room table near the elder Ford’s body, and a fired bullet was found in the wall of a bedroom. Another was found in the bedroom ceiling. A fired shotgun shell was recovered from under the bed in the bedroom and three buckshot wads were found in the ceiling of the bedroom.

A safe with a bullet hole was found in a bedroom, as were 14 rounds of .30-06 ammunition. A case in the bedroom held 11 12-gauge shotgun rounds.

In addition to guns and ammunition, drug paraphernalia was found.

According to death notices published in the Bulletin, Schopper will have a memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Baird Memorial Chapel, 16468 Finley Butte Road in La Pine. A GoFundMe account has been set up to help with funeral costs.

No formal service will be held for the elder Ford. Those who wish to donate in his memory are asked to contribute to the Central Oregon Humane Society.

Attempts to contact the younger Ford, along with his friends and family members, were unsuccessful. However, in a Facebook status update posted Friday, the younger Ford eulogized his girlfriend.

“… You were my world and still and now (you’re) my Angel flying above me … I love you baby don’t ever forget that,” the post read.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376, awieber@bendbulletin.com