Richard D. “Rich” Broadbent, a 58-year-old male died on March 9, 2022 in Morrow County, Oregon. Public records and contemporaneous coverage identify him as a longtime resident of Boardman who died at his home that night; memorial notices the following week confirmed his age and the date of death. He was later remembered in local obituaries and memorial pages that listed his birth on November 12, 1963, and a private family gathering in his honor.
In the hours surrounding the killing, investigators focused on a family member present at the scene. According to a search-warrant affidavit described in pre-trial reporting, the 58-year-old male victim argued at the Boardman home with his adult stepson, who then retrieved a semiautomatic handgun. The 58-year-old male fled through the kitchen door toward the driveway as his stepson followed; two shots were heard, and the 58-year-old male was found in the driveway with a fatal wound above the left eye. The stepson left in his mother's red 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier, later telling police he threw the gun into the Columbia River near Highway 730.
An arrest followed swiftly. On March 10, 2022, the stepson, identified as 39-year-old Caleb Marion Beehler, turned himself in to police and was booked in Morrow County on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the death of the 58-year-old male. A grand jury indictment and arraignment on the murder count were recorded eight days later. Gun-violence incident trackers and memorial listings from that week also recorded the killing of a 58-year-old male named Richard Broadbent in Morrow County.
Court proceedings unfolded in Heppner, the county seat. After pre-trial hearings and scheduling in 2023 and early 2024, Beehler waived a jury and proceeded to a bench trial beginning February 12, 2024. On February 14, 2024, Circuit Judge Jon Lieuallen found Beehler guilty of second-degree murder for the slaying of the 58-year-old male, concluding the two-day trial. Local outlets reported that sentencing would follow on a later date set by the court.
Taken together, the public record establishes that the victim—Richard D. “Rich” Broadbent, a 58-year-old male—was shot and killed on March 9, 2022 in Boardman, Morrow County; that his stepson, Caleb Marion Beehler, was arrested the next day and indicted for second-degree murder; and that Beehler was found guilty of that charge by a judge on February 14, 2024 after a bench trial in Heppner.
