Remains of missing mom Kara Taylor found at landfill

Human remains belonging to a missing Oregon mother have been recovered at a landfill 70 miles from the blood-drenched home she shared with a roommate, who has allegedly confessed to butchering the woman.

The harrowing discovery was made earlier this week at the Coffin Butte Landfill in Corvallis following a grueling search in the summer heat for 49-year-old Kara Taylor, who had been missing since late July.

“Our detectives searched the landfill for about three days — 35 to 40 hours,” said Oregon City Police Capt. David Edwins, according to station KPIC. “They moved approximately 4,000 to 7,000 tons of equipment with the help of the landfill company.”

The dig turned up body parts that investigators said matched Taylor’s DNA, reported station KOIN.

The victim’s housemate, 47-year-old Jamon Fritsch, was arrested last week on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree abuse of corpse.

During Fritsch’s arraignment in the Clackamas County Courthouse, prosecutors said he admitted to the police that he had dismembered Taylor’s body and dumped the remains at several landfills so that authorities would not be able to recover them.

Taylor was last seen alive on July 25 at the home in Oregon City she shared with Fritsch and another friend.

Two days later, Fritsch, who had taken Taylor in a short time earlier and promised her family to help her recover from spinal surgery, reported her missing.

Taylor’s 22-year-old daughter, who has severe autism, is non-verbal and requires around-the-clock care, was left in the house.

Given the suspicious circumstances of Taylor’s disappearance, Oregon City police detectives launched an investigation.

On August 5, police and the FBI executed a search warrant at Fritsch’s home on Jefferson Street and uncovered disturbing evidence suggesting that Taylor had died “by homicidal violence.”

The Clackamas County prosecutor told the court last week that investigators found blood in the bathroom, in the bathtub and in a bedroom.

Before Fritsch reported Taylor as missing, he had “made multiple trips to Home Depot to purchase zip ties, tarps, a saw blade, a black tote and contractor bags among other things,” Clackamas County Deputy District Attorney Sarah Dumont said, adding that the murder suspect even described himself as a “danger.”

Investigators have not discussed a possible motive behind the brutal killing.

Taylor’s brother, Marcus Sanders, told The Oregonian that during one of the last times he spoke to his sister by phone, she told him she was staying with Fritsch.

Sanders said he thanked his sister’s roommate for looking after her, to which Fritsch reportedly replied, “No problem at all.”

Taylor, a respiratory therapist by trade, had moved in with Fritsch in July, not long after her marriage unraveled due to her struggles with drugs and alcohol, according to her estranged husband of less than a year, Dennis Taylor.

“At times, Kara struggled to find an inner sense of worth and belonging,” the man said. “And then when we separated, it was hard on both of us.”

At the time Fritsch opened his home to her, Kara Taylor was unemployed and recovering from surgery.

Her heartbroken family said of Kara that she was a selfless and joyful woman who was quick to laugh and loved “togetherness.”

“She was just a happy-go-lucky person and enjoyed a lot of the same things that I enjoyed,” her husband said.

Meanwhile, Fritsch’s younger brother, Karl Fritsch, said Jamon suffered from possibly undiagnosed mental illness. He added that he was not “fully surprised” by his arrest.