PANAMA CITY BEACH — A sunny start to the Fourth of July holiday was shattered this morning when a 16-year-old boy found the bodies of his mother and father after an apparent murder-suicide.
The boy lived with his parents, Robert Bumpus, 38, and Karrie Bumpus, 36, in a first-floor, two-bedroom apartment at Cabana West on Alf Coleman Road. He called 911 around 9:30 a.m., according to Capt. Jimmy Stanford.
"He was there at the time of the incident," Stanford said. "He is the one who found the bodies and called us."
Stanford confirmed that a "hand gun" was found at the scene. Both the man and woman, who have lived at the apartments with their son for about a month, were found dead from gunshot wounds, Stanford said.
According to the medical examiner's office, Robert Bumpus shot Karrie Bumpus and then himself.
The couple's child was turned over to family members, sheriff's officials said.
Six sheriff's department vehicles, including one unmarked, along with the county medical examiner responded to the scene, and investigators removed several brown paper bags filled with evidence Saturday afternoon.
One neighbor said she had heard the couple fighting Friday night.
"I heard the arguing before dark, they were fighting pretty good," said Marsha Dalrymple, who lives next door to the family. "I heard her yell at him ‘Something has got to give!'"
Dalrymple said she did not hear a gunshot.
"I heard nothing. I was up at 4:30 a.m. and heard nothing, just the fighting last night," she said.
Other neighbors said they did not hear gunshots. One woman held her hand to her mouth in shock when she was told the news.
"Oh my God!" Stephanie Roland said.
Roland described the couple as friendly, the kind of folks you wave to on the way to work.
There are a lot of those kind of people at Cabana West, a place where the apartments are painted bright summer colors, residents hang flowers from the balconies and children walk puppies on freshly cut grass.
"They were normal people," Roland said. "Very nice people."
News Herald writer S. Brady Calhoun contributed to this report.
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