Sheriff’s department says gunman upset at the death of his mother killed seven people in a shooting rampage before turning gun on himself

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A man apparently upset at the death of his mother killed seven people in a shooting rampage in rural Missouri before turning the gun on himself, police said Friday.

The Missouri highway patrol said Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, carried a .45-caliber handgun through four homes in Texas County either Thursday night or Friday morning, killing four of his cousins and three other adults.

A 74-year-old woman who apparently died of natural causes was found dead in another residence. Texas County coroner Tom Whittaker told the St Louis Post-Dispatch the woman appeared to have been dead at least 24 hours.



Authorities said the motive remained unclear. Whittaker speculated to the newspaper that Aldridge “came home and found her deceased and then for whatever reason went on a rampage and started killing people”.

The Texas County sheriff’s department said it responded to an emergency call just after 10pm on Thursday from a girl reporting gunshots. The girl fled to a neighbor’s house, and deputies found two bodies in the home from which the girl called.



“Further investigation revealed five additional victims who were deceased and one additional victim who was wounded in three additional residences,” the department said.

The highway patrol identified some of the dead Friday as Garold Dee Aldridge, 52; his 47-year-old wife, Julie Ann Aldridge; Harold Wayne Aldridge, 50; and that man’s wife, 48-year-old Janell Arlisa Aldridge. All were Aldridge’s cousins.

Aldridge was later found in a vehicle in nearby Shannon County dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Kinder said during a press conference on Friday morning.

“In our job we see a lot of bad stuff. And this is bad … It’s not natural to see that sort of thing,” Kinder said.



“This is a horrific tragedy, and our hearts go out to the victims of these senseless acts and their families,” Governor Jay Nixon said.

The Houston Herald reported that the staff at local schools were told to arrive early to provide counseling sessions.



A neighbor, who refused to give his name, told the Associated Press that the girl was barefoot and clad only in a nightgown when she came running across a snow-covered field full of thickets that left her legs cut up.

“She was crying so hard, but I finally got out of her ‘My mom and dad have been shot,’” the neighbor said.

Texas County, Missouri, is in the southern part of the state near the Arkansas border and has a population just under 30,000 people, according to the 2010 Census. Tyrone, where Aldridge lived, has a population of about 50, the AP reported. “There’s not even a stop sign there,” county clerk Don Troutman told the AP.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.