Coroner details Miami U honor student death

• Enquirer exclusive%3A Miami University honor student Rebecca Eldemire was fully clothed and asleep in her locked bedroom when her ex-boyfriend shot her with a .357 magnum handgun.
• The ex-boyfriend then shot himself and both were found lying face-up in the bed of the Miami University student.

OXFORD – Miami University student Rebecca Eldemire was sleeping fully clothed on the last Sunday morning of her life when her ex-boyfriend blasted bullets from a .357 magnum into her face.

According to a Butler County coroner's report obtained Tuesday exclusively by The Enquirer, minutes later her killer – 27-year-old Larry Tipton – joined the dead 21-year-old honor student in bed, lying next to her face up before fatally shooting himself.

On the Saturday evening before the murder-suicide, Tipton consented to a weapons search by three Oxford police officers who frisked him for weapons and searched a bag he was carrying.

Eldemire had alerted local police that her ex-boyfriend was driving from the Columbus area to her off-campus apartment and they met Tipton when he arrived. But after both Eldemire and police questioned him, she allowed Tipton to enter her home.

Hours later, during the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 1, Tipton told Eldemire and her roommates that he had to retrieve a plant from his parked car and had secreted the handgun into Eldemire's apartment.

"She (Eldemire) was lying supine (face up) across her bed full clothed," according to investigators who found the bodies in the locked bedroom.

She was shot twice in the face.

"The body of her boyfriend was lying next to her, in essentially the same position, with a gunshot wound to the head. Lying next to his body is a .357 magnum revolver …. ," states the report signed by Butler County Coroner Lisa Mannix.

"On a desk within (Eldemire's bedroom) is a two-page (suicide) note written by him," the report said.

Another suicide note by Tipton, who was neither a student nor had any connection to Miami University, was later found at his Columbus home.

The coroner's report on Tipton's death is not done, coroner officials said.

Oxford police's preliminary report called the killings a murder-suicide, which occurred at about 8:30 a.m. Feb. 1, but a more detailed report has yet to be released by the department.

Oxford police did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request on the status of their report.

Toxicology exams of Eldemire showed no sign of drugs in her body.

The report found that Eldemire was shot at "intermediate range," which according to coroner officials means the point of the gun's muzzle was not pressed against her skin but was close enough to her face to produce gunpowder burns.

There were no reported signs of a struggle and Eldemire's roommates told police they heard no unusual noises or sounds of an argument before they were awakened by gunshot blasts and a smoke alarm siren coming from the locked bedroom.

Eldemire's family has set up a foundation in her memory called The Rebecca C. Eldemire BEEPS Foundation – Betterment for Environmental and Earth Protection. ("Beeps" was Eldermire's nickname.) The family asked that memorial donations be made to the Foundation at Chase Bank in Rebecca's honor and memory.)

Reporter Henry Molski contributed.