Slain Bend-area woman remembered for positivity, passion

T hursday would have been the 59 th birthday for Valerie Peterson, the victim of a fatal shooting north of Bend just one day earlier. Instead of celebrating her birthday, friends and family gathered Thursday evening to celebrate her spirit and mourn her death.

“When I heard about it, I was just so shocked,” said Robert Whitman, Peterson’s brother-in-law. “We couldn’t believe that something like that could happen to her.”

“We don’t know how we’re going to get through this, but together we’ll get through,” said Melissa McPherson, Peterson’s sister.

McPherson said the area where the shooting took place along McGrath Road is a safe neighborhood, and she’s shocked that this happened.

“(Valerie) was an innocent bystander, walking her dogs on a normal sunny, cold morning,” McPherson said. “And she didn’t come home.”

McPherson told NewsChannel 21 that dog-walking was a therapy for Peterson, who suffered a stroke three years ago and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two years ago. Peterson’s last chemotherapy session was on Friday, and McPherson said her numbers were finally getting back to normal.

“She was losing her hair, and instead of letting it fall out by itself, she wanted to do a quick hair-do,” McPherson said. “We did a mohawk on her before we shaved her head. We did a mullet. It was really fun.”

Joanna Kasner, the alleged shooter now facing a murder charge, lives two doors down from where Peterson lived. McPherson said her sister never knew Kasner. She said all they know is that law enforcement has been called to Kasner’s property several times in the past.

“There is a message that I want to send out to people,” McPherson said. “A gun may have taken our sister early, but we know that it’s not guns that kill people. It’s people who kill people.”

Peterson is survived by her husband, her son, her three sisters and her two brothers.