Whitehaven, TN: Older couple found dead in Whitehaven home of murder-suicide, police say

By Jody Callahan
Posted October 17, 2010 at 3:51 p.m., updated October 17, 2010 at 10:43 p.m.
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Even though they watched multiple sclerosis slowly rob their father of his life, the family never saw it coming.

Vanessa Evans and Karl DeBose had no idea their parents, James and Edna DeBose, were suffering to that degree.

But just before 11 a.m. Sunday, their aunt entered the home in the 1200 block of Rosecliff in Whitehaven and found the elderly couple shot to death. James was 70, Edna 63; the couple had been married for 48 years.

Police told the family that, based on preliminary reports, it was a murder-suicide. It's unknown who pulled the trigger. Family members last talked with the DeBoses on Saturday.

"It was totally offbeat," Karl DeBose said, comforting his sister outside the home Sunday afternoon. "Completely unexpected," said his wife, Stacy.

Added Evans: "He was functional," saying she was unaware of any problems with the couple other than her father's disease.

Evans said her father had been diagnosed with MS more than a decade ago, but that it had significantly worsened in recent years. Her mother, a retired nurse, was taking care of him, she added.

Family members said the DeBoses leave four children and 11 grandchildren.