Thursday, January 20, 2011

Wake County, NC: 911 call suggests couple's murder-suicide

BY THOMASI MCDONALD - STAFF WRITER
Tags: crime and safety | local | news | Wake County | murder-suicide
A 911 call from a southern Wake County home indicates that a woman may have shot her husband in the stomach Sunday afternoon and then turned the handgun on herself.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office has declined to say whether Donna Evans shot her husband, John, and then shot herself. When paramedics arrived at the couple's home on Brook Cross Drive, they pronounced Donna Evans, 53, dead and rushed JohnEvans, 67, to WakeMed, where his condition was upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

A woman who lived with the couple told a 911 operator that she was taking a shower when the shooting occurred. When she turned the shower off, she said she heard John Evans screaming.


The woman, who was not identified in the 911 recording, said she could hear John Evans shouting, "Help me! Help me! Help me!"

The woman said she ran out of the shower, grabbed her bathrobe and went into the couple's bedroom, where she said she found Donna Evans lying face down and John Evans on his back.

"She shot me," a man's voice can be heard saying on the 911 call.

The woman who called 911 was nearly breathless and barely intelligible. She told the 911 operator that Donna Evans was unconscious and having trouble breathing. The 911 operator told her to press a clean towel to stop the flow of blood from Donna Evans' wound. Meanwhile, John Evans can be heard in the background, moaning in pain.

The woman told the 911 operator that there was a gun on the floor near Donna Evans, according to the recording.

"I think she's dead," the woman said to the paramedics when they arrived at the home. "I think she's dead. Oh God, I hope not."

Save for the couple's names and the 911 recording, the sheriff's office has released few details about the shooting.

The case is under investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said Wednesday.

thomasi.mcdonald@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4533

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