The man who died last month in an arson fire at an RV encampment in Ontario has been identified as Ricky Cole Fowler, 32.
Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson said the identity was established by the office of the state medical examiner.
Fowler perished when his RV burned on April 23 in an area on Northwest 22nd Avenue known as the Flats. The fire destroyed two other campers and heavily damaged a home.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation but references on fundraising posts for the family indicate it may have been deliberately set.
A relative said he was “the victim of an arson” and a family friend said his mother, living in Texas, learning that “her precious baby boy died is unimaginable to everyone as the case is now a homicide.”
Fowler, also known as Cole, followed a girlfriend from his native Wichita Falls, Texas, to Oregon in 2020, according to his mother, Jennifer Roberson.
“He was always, always smiling. He would go without if he could help someone else.”
– Jennifer Roberson, Cole Fowler’s mother
“He’s had quite a rough time,” she told the Enterprise in an interview. He did handyman chores but hadn’t held a steady job since coming to Oregon.
“As he grew up, he was always for the underdog and stood up for the weak and bullied,” according to a Gofundme campaign page. “If he friended you, it was forever. He made sure you were always protected. He never had much money, but if you were in need, he’d do whatever he could to meet your need over his.”
The fundraising campaign was launched to cover expenses of returning Fowler’s remains to Texas. Roberson said she plans a service for her son there in June.
This was the second fire involving him in the past year. A fire in November destroyed a camper he was living in on property in east Ontario.
“He has been living in a camper with his two dogs. Yesterday, he came home to his camper on fire. Someone intentionally poured gas on the camper then set it on fire,” his mother said not long after in a Gofundme statement. “The camper and his belongings were all destroyed by the fire and water from the fire trucks. Thankfully, he and his dogs were not home. Everything he had is gone. He is homeless and has only the clothes on his back.”
Roberson said in the interview that at the time, “I told Cole, ‘You need to be a little bit careful. If you were asleep and that guy set your camper on fire, it could have killed you.”
She said her son and his girlfriend in the ensuing months stayed with friends. A friend finally gave him an RV, which he parked near a home on Northwest 22nd owned by other friends.
When the fire erupted April 23, Roberson was at home in Texas. A message came through on her Facebook page that someone was trying to reach her about her son.
Roberson finally reached one friend, who told her, “Cole is dead. There’s a fire at Cole’s trailer.”
She said her son apparently was asleep in his RV with two dogs when other residents at the encampment saw the fire. They couldn’t rouse him, she said. She said police later told her that the victim in the fire was most likely her son.
The sheriff called her Friday to let her know the identity had been confirmed.
“He was always, always smiling,” his mother said. “He would go without if he could help someone else.”
She said if a friend of his was in a “bad situation, he would sit with that friend for hours and hours at a time. If he had any little bit of food in the house, he would make sure someone else had it before he ate.”
Roberson said she’s been distressed by social media comments degrading her son.
“He wasn’t trash. He wasn’t a scumbag,” she said. “He didn’t deserve to die.”
