Yet another murder/suicide:This time, it's the father...
 

From USA Today

Father kills 3 kids, self outside mother's home


THROCKMORTON, Texas (AP) — The estranged wife of a man who fatally shot their three children and then committed suicide in a car outside her home said he had threatened to kill the family before.

"I told him I wanted a divorce and that's when he pulled the gun," Beth Smallwood, 33, said Sunday of her husband, James D. Smallwood Jr.

In an interview with The Associated Press, she said her husband was supposed to return their children — Corie, 10, Casey, 4, and Chase, 3 — to her home Sunday evening.

Instead, police said, he shot the three children as they sat in his car Saturday night, then drove to his estranged wife's house, which she shared with her parents, and shot himself.

Beth Smallwood said she and her mother were on the front porch when James Smallwood drove up the gravel driveway in his mother's Cadillac.

She called 911 when he began honking the horn, apparently trying to get her to walk out to the driveway, said Clay Gober, Beth Smallwood's brother. James Smallwood shot himself a short time later.

Beth Smallwood said she had filed for divorce in November but it hadn't been finalized.

After months of hearings following their separation, a judge granted her husband unsupervised visitation rights in January, a decision she was critical of Sunday.

"I begged him for his help because I was worried about the kids," she said.

A telephone message left at Judge Rae Leifeste's home was not immediately returned Sunday afternoon.

In Throckmorton, a town of 1,000 about 120 miles west of Dallas, residents said they were shocked to hear of the killings.

Ron Sadler, a dispatcher with the Throckmorton County sheriff's department who took the 911 call, said the killings were the first for Throckmorton in the seven years he had worked for the sheriff's office.

At the First United Methodist Church that Beth Smallwood's family attends, congregants recalled seeing her two daughters perform in a Christmas show, dressed in long white robes with white angel wings.

"The thing I remember is her clutching those three precious children," church member Elizabeth London said.

Scott Hogue, principal of the Throckmorton schools, described Corey, who was a fourth-grader, as "a sweet little girl" who always had a smile on her face. The other daughter would have been in kindergarten next fall, he said.

Sick, selfish bastard.

I agree CrimsonTide4!!! It is so sad when people result to violence, thinking they are solving a problem, or trying to hurt/get back at someone. Those innocent children didn't deserve this!!! :(

:( :( :( :(

When will the madness end?

We need stricter laws - our children are not being protected. Unfortunately the coward killed himself, but the judge that gave him unsupervised visitations should undergo some sort of fine or questioning about how he came to that conclusion.

That heffa that murdered her five children should be fried.
:mad:

I am sick and tired of people using their kids to get back at the other spouse or something. People need to realize they are hurting the kids more than the other person and further more Fool if want to kill yourself FINE but leave dem babies alone.

At least the mother can be at somewhat peace knowing her children knew GOD and they are resting with him now safe from that INSANE NUT who took their precious lives away.

i wonder...
 

how that judge is feeling right about now??

see... folks are crazy.
He didn't have to murder the children. CT4 said it... selfish bastid. Sick azz. That poor mother... I am sure she is beating herself up, wondering if (if anything) there was more she could have done.
I wonder if she got a "funny feeling" about this particular time.
See... my mother always said that you DO NOT discuss relationship, custody, and other miscellaneous argument-prone issues while your children are around. I have learned that lesson first hand, you just don't do that... you get upset enough and it's doubtful what YOU may do, let alone not knowing what the other person may do. You don't want your kids to see you fighting, wayyyy too pissed off, arrested or worse. It's just not a good pic to paint. All parties were at fault here, except those innocent children.

Well, at least he killed HIMSELF also and didn't to plead insanity!