Patterson Cemetery District, Stanislaus County, CA Submitted by Gale Stroud and Burta Herger 26 Aug 2007 This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. Branscum, Trevor 060708 p1 Patterson neighbors stunned by Gustine family's deaths A few Patterson residents expressed shock this week upon discovering that their former neighbors were involved in an apparent murder-suicide in Gustine. Gustine resident Trevor Branscum, 38, is suspected of shooting his four children with a bolt-action rifle early Tuesday before shooting himself, according to Gustine Police Department reports. The Branscum family lived on Moray Way in Patterson for a couple of years before moving to Gustine, about 17 miles south of Patterson in Merced County, along Highway 33. "I don't have any answer for this," said former Patterson neighbor Joann Lee, who is friends with Branscum's wife, Amanda Trimble. Lee said Branscum was "a nice guy," who seemed goodof with his children. "The kids were always climbing all over him," she said. Police said they found Trimble lying in the middle of the road on the 1600 block of Via Colabria around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, when they responded to reports of a possible shooting there. When they entered the house, they found the bodies of Branscum and children Aubrie, 12, Jacob, 10, and twins Taylor and Alyssa, 5. Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin said it appears Branscum shot Aubrie first, in the master bedroom, before shooting Jacob in his bedroom and the twins in the front room on the couch. Then, it appears Branscum shot himself in the kitchen, with his left hand in a rifle sling to stabilize the gun as his right hand pulled the trigger. All the children appeared to be asleep when they were killed, Pazin said. The sheriff's department says Branscum's blood alcohol level was .28 percent, more than three times the legal driving limit, and beer bottles were scattered throughout the house. Police had previously received a report at 12:16 a.m. that Branscum and Trimble had gotten into an argument at Borrelli's Market on Jensen Road. Police had heard Trimble was in the store buying personal items when Branscum arrived. The two soon entered into a verbal argument. Gustine Police Chief Don Hutchins said video surveil- lance tapes did not reveal any screaming or hollering. The store's owner told police that Trimble had started to pull out of the parking lot in a sil- � Joann Lee ver van when Branscum tterson neighbor jumped into the van through Branscum family an open window. The couple left the area in an unknown direction, and Gustine police used all available resources to find the couple and their van. Trimble had visited with a friend of hers after the incident during a cooling off peri- od before she returned to her home and found her husband lying dead in a pool of blood and saw the bodies of the twins, police said. Trimble collapsed in front of her house, and her friend contacted police. Lee expressed shock this week about the entire incident, and she said Branscum and Trimble had seemed to get along well. "I've never seen them mad or angry," Lee said. "I've never seen them fight at all." Another former Patterson neighbor, Mary Ortiz, expressed similar sentiments. "They were good people, as far as I know," Ortiz said. "What goes on behind closed doors, I don't know." Lee said the Branscum family lived on Moray Way beginning when the 5-year-old twins were three or four months old. They moved to Gustine in 2003 because their home payment there was about the same amount as their rent payment in Patterson, Lee said. She said Trimble had tried to encourage her family to move to Gustine, too. Lee said the Branscum family was not widely known throughout the neighborhood, but the children were involved in sports. Another neighborhood family, whose daughter was best friends with Aubrie, is on vacation, she said, and probably has not yet heard about the incident. Lee found out about the incident while she was eating at Quizno's on Wednesday, when her daughter picked up a copy of the paper outside and ran crying into the restaurant. Lee said she had talked to Trimble just a few days before. "I just want to find Amanda and tell her I love her," she said Hutchins said all evidence at this time points to the incident being a murder-suicide. Police say all evidence indicates the rifle was not planted at the scene. Hutchins said police have recently learned that Branscum and Trimble had a strained marital relationship, but Branscum did not have a history of domestic violence. Trimble and Branscum were married on Valentine's Day 2003, but they had been a couple for 17 years, and all four children were theirs. Branscum was laid off from his job in the Bay Area about a year ago, and he had been working as a glazer on the new Kaiser Permanente medical center project in Modesto, Hutchins said. The Modesto position was a lower-paying job, and Trimble had to go to work for the first time, as a waitress in Santa Nella. Regardless of the motive for the shooting, Lee said things will be difficult for Trimble in the days to come. "I don't know how a person can go on living like that," Lee said. "It's going to be one of those things that's going to take God."