Godfrey, IL: Murder-suicide suspected in three Illinois deaths

BY JOEL CURRIER jcurrier@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8256

Police investigate three deaths in Madison County
UPDATED 10:24 a.m. Tuesday with photo and funeral arrangements for one of the victims.
MADISON COUNTY • Three people were found dead Sunday in an apparent double-murder and suicide.
Police identified two found dead inside a house in the 8500 block of Lagemann Road in Godfrey as Julie A. Henry, 42, who lived there, and Thomas A. Hunsinger, 48. A man found dead at a house in the 3700 block of Franor Street in Alton was identified as Steven B. Henry, 51, the former husband of Julie Henry.
Police said Steven Henry apparently shot his former wife and Hunsinger before fleeing and taking his own life with a gunshot. Steven and Julie Henry were divorced in October, police said. They said Hunsinger, of Staunton, and Julie Henry were involved in a relationship.
Alton police got a 911 call about the shootings on Lagemann Road shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. The caller reported that two people were dead there. Police said they believed the call came from Steven Henry. Sheriff's deputies checked the residence on Lagemann and found the bodies of Julie Henry and Hunsinger in a bedroom. Autopsies determined the causes of death as gunshot wounds. An autopsy on Steven Henry determined his cause of death to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. No other suspects are being sought, police said.
Thomas Bock, 50, of Godfrey, said Julie Henry was his sister. Bock, who lives next door to Julie Henry, said his sister had been married to Steven Henry for 12 years. He said she was a graduate of Alton Senior High School and had been a factory worker at Olin Corp. in East Alton for about a decade and was the mother of two boys and a girl ranging in age from 12 to mid-20s.
Bock said his sister was bedridden after having surgery Friday, which, he said, is why her two younger children weren't home when she and Hunsinger were killed.
Bock said his sister's marriage to Steve Henry was an unhappy one, and that he rarely let her leave the house except for work.
"He made her life hell," Bock said. "He controlled her. He was a control freak and wouldn't let her go anywhere."
Bock said his sister had improved after meeting her new boyfriend.
"She was a lot happier," Bock said. "He made her like, live again. he'd do stuff with her an take her places."