A husband fatally shot his estranged wife and two others who tried to protect her before killing himself in a domestic dispute that spiraled out of control, authorities in northwest Missouri said Monday.
Mercer County Sheriff Steve Stockman said he found the body of Misty Huffman, 37, upstairs at the rural Modena home on Saturday afternoon.
Stockman said it appeared her husband, John Hufford, had arrived at the house and shot her two protectors, Lisa Tunnell, 41, and 33-year-old Waylon Wages, in the driveway as they tried to prevent him from entering the house. Hufford then stormed upstairs to a storage room where he killed his wife just seconds after she made a 911 call.
Stockman said he found the body of 50-year-old John Hufford, of Princeton, in a pickup truck where he had fatally shot himself.
The home belonged to Tunnell and Wages lived in nearby Princeton, Stockman said.
Misty Hufford had been staying with Tunnell since she filed for divorce less than two weeks ago. The sheriff said she had come to the sheriff's office a couple of times asking about her options and had been urged to file a temporary protection order, which she did.
Stockman said the panicked cries of the Huffords' 2-year-old daughter who was standing inside when he walked into the house tore his heart out.
"My heart went out for that little girl. When I came through the front door she was standing in the living room screaming. I picked her up and took her out first," he said. "I'm pretty sure she saw everything."
The girl and her 11-year-old brother are staying with family members in the Princeton area, Stockman said.
The sheriff said all four people had lived in Mercer County for several years.
Although Misty Hufford had filed the protection order, Stockman said the facts of the couple's divorce didn't seem particularly unusual.
Online court records indicate John Hufford had been divorced previously, in 1997 and 2007.
Stockman said his county, where murders are rare, has been shaken by the slayings.
"Everybody's full of shock and remorse. Disbelief," the sheriff said. "It's a big thing out here where this doesn't happen every day."
John Young, an attorney who represented Hufford in the 2007 divorce from another woman, said that separation was smooth and that "there were no hiccups." Young, who also is the prosecutor in Mercer County, said there hadn't been a murder in the county in a decade.
"It's very sad and shaking anytime you have a loss of life in a small county," Young said. "It's a tragedy. You pray to God it never happens again."
3 comments:
I grew up with Lisa. Her grandparents lived three blocks down our street and she would spend summers in our town. There was a math error on the part of law enforcement. Lisa was born March 8, 1960 and was 51 years old, not the 41 years reported. The 33 year old guy was her boyfriend. Lisa was a "wild child" and enjoyed life. She was very cute when she was young and she kept her good looks. She died trying protecting a friend. God bless her.
The shooter had been divorced twice before. While many knew about the divorce, people there did not see this coming.
Lisa was 51, not the 41 reported in the press however I am sure she would not mind the error.
Lisa grew up three blocks down the street from me and she was a lady determined to enjoy life. She died protecting a friend. God bless her.
Not that this matters at this point but I want it to be known that Waylon was not Lisa's boyfriend. Yes she had a tendency to date/marry younger men but Waylon was seeing Misty. I know this because I am her daughter, Kendall. Thanks for correcting her age mistake, she would have loved knowing they made her younger.
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