Amber Mark was sleeping in a tent on Highway 99 when she was killed by 18-year-old Anthony Charles Rodeen after he ran over her tent on Sept. 8. 

The driver continued driving recklessly after running over Mark and one other the tent. He eventually hit another pedestrian after driving onto a sidewalk near a Dari Mart before being apprehended by a witness and arrested by Eugene police.
The other person in the tent, a 23-year-old, had life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital, according to police. 

Rodeen is facing charges of murder in the second degree, attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the second degree and two counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver to injured persons.

A vigil for Mark and 13 other people who had died while unhoused that month was organized by Mark’s family and the housing advocacy group Stop the Sweeps Eugene on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m.

Steven Kimes, a pastor at Eugene Menonite Church and a member of Stop the Sweeps Eugene, began the ceremony with a moment of silence. A crowd of nearly 50 people, including Mark’s friends and family, stood silently in the tree-shaded area at the corner of Highway 99 and Bethel Drive.

Kimes said the road is well-known for having people go up and down along the sides to access various nearby services. Heused a microphone and a small amplifier to be heard over the sounds of the traffic.

“We are here today to remember Amber Mark,” Kimes said. “And to consider what our city is doing to houseless people.” 

The crowd held candles in plastic cups as Kimes read aloud the first names of the 13 unhoused people who had died in Eugene in the past month. 

According to the medical clinic Health Care for the Homeless, life expectancy for people experiencing homelessness drops to 48 years. The current average life expectancy of U.S. citizens is about 78.8 years, according to World Bank Open Data. 

Mark’s family took the opportunity to say a few words about her after Kimes’ service. Mark’s aunt, Mystic Mark, described the different treatment unhoused people receive from police and coroners compared to housed people.

Typically, police records of deaths will list the city of the deceased individual in the “address” section, she said. When Mark’s body was identified, the news release listed her name and age followed by “no address.”

“They knew she lived in Eugene,” she said. “Even if she didn’t have a house, she still lived in Eugene.”

She said the medical examiner was supposed to call Amber’s cousin so she could be taken to a funeral home. Mark’s mother had also left voicemails, she said.

“But when her mom finally got hold of the medical examiner, they said they had sent her somewhere else because they didn’t think there was anyone to claim her even though they had contact information for a family, and I just thought that was really, really wrong. And if she had a house, none of that would have happened, and I just want to point out how wrong that is,” she said.

The deaths of people without housing have been historically under-reported and under-represented by governments. The Oregon State Legislature tried to change that last year when it passed SB 850, which requires death reports to include housing status and counties to record how many people die without housing.
From January to July in 2022, the Oregon Health Authority recorded 41 deaths of people without housing in Lane County. There were 245 of those deaths total in Oregon in that time period.
But with less than a year of data, the ability of officials to notice trends and understand just how many people die without housing is limited.

The bill does not require counties to improve the way they find people who have died without housing outside of citizen reports and police finding bodies.

Stop the Sweeps Eugene collected the names of the 13 people who died by speaking to a network of people living on the streets. According to Kimes, their first names are Travis, Amanda, Little Desi, Johnny Walker, Mickey, Gabe, Nicki, Billy, Michelle, Scott, Brett and Stanley.
The Eugene Weekly has an obituary segment for unhoused people who died in Lane County. Holding vigils and sharing the memories of these people is one way to fight against this under-representation, Kimes said.

Some people who attended the vigil had known Mark for more than a decade. Others had met her once or twice and attended because she made an impression on them. 

“Amber’s family and friends say that Amber was an old soul, and when she smiled it radiated across oceans,” Kimes said. “Amber was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a niece and a forever friend. She touched the lives of every person that she came across in life.”

David James was Mark’s boyfriend at the time of her passing and had known her for four years. He said she was a helper and someone who frequently checked in with people who had grown close to her. 

James said he and Mark would sometimes butt heads, both being the type to want to give all of their time to helping the people they knew on the street.

“She was running around being the helpful person, giving what she has to others,” James said. “People loved her for it.”

Amber Mark’s family has created a GoFundMe to raise money for funeral expenses.