A gunman killed seven people — four of whom are family members of the suspect — in a door-to-door shooting spree in Missouri Thursday before killing himself, in a rampage that may have been triggered by finding his mother dead of what are believed to be natural causes, officials said Friday.
Gunman Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a car in a neighboring county after the killings in the rural community of Tyrone, located in the southern part of the state, about 90 miles east of Springfield, authorities said.
Texas County coroner Tom Whittaker told NBC affiliate KSDK that the body of a woman identified by authorities as Aldridge's mother, 74-year-old Alice Aldridge, had been dead for 24 hours before she was found by authorities Thursday night, and she is thought to have died of natural causes.
Whittaker said the suspect's discovery of the body may have sparked the killing spree, but investigators said a motive has not yet been determined. Texas County Sheriff's deputies first learned of the rampage — which spanned six crime scenes in a three-mile radius in Tyrone — just after 10 p.m. local time after a juvenile female called 911 and said there were gunshots in her home.
Texas County SheriffJoseph Jesse Aldridge is suspected of fatally shooting seven people in a door-to-door spree in Missouri Thursday night.
Four of the seven victims were identified as husband and wife Darrell Aldridge and Julie Aldridge and husband and wife Harold Aldridge and Janelle Aldridge, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Kinder said at a news conference Friday, adding that the some were cousins of the suspect.
The other three victims were not members of the suspect's family and have not yet been identified.
Texas County Sheriff's deputies were alerted to the trail of slayings at 10:15 p.m. CT (11:15 p.m. ET) Thursday, when a juvenile female called 911 to say she heard gunshots in her home and fled. Deputies responded and found two people dead inside the home.
After investigating further, another five people were found fatally shot in three other residences in Tyrone, a small unincorporated community about 95 miles east of Springfield. There was also one person injured at one of the scenes, who was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover, Texas County authorities said.
Texas County Sheriff James Sigman said during a news conference Friday that investigators "checked a wide area door-to-door" for additional victims and were "hopeful" that no one else was killed or injured.
Sigman said "everybody knows everybody" in the small community, which isn't accustomed to homicides. "Start locking your doors," he advised residents Friday. "The world is changing."
Jeff McNiell / Houston HeraldPolice tape surrounds one of the crime scenes in Tyrone, situated in south-central Missouri.
— Erik Ortiz and Elisha Fieldstadt
First published February 27 2015, 6:09 AM
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