Discovery of dead mom may have sparked Mo. killing spree

TYRONE, Mo. – A door-to-door killing spree that left eight people dead in a rural Missouri community may have been triggered by the alleged gunman finding his mother dead in her home, the county coroner said Friday. The woman apparently died of natural causes.

The suspect was identified as Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, of Tyrone, Mo., the son of Alice Aldridge, 74, who was found dead on her couch in the small wood-frame house they shared, Texas County Sheriff James Sigman said Friday.

Aldridge was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in adjoining Shannon County, about 15 miles from Tyrone in south-central Missouri. Sigman said the suspect was found in his pickup in the middle of the road.

The authorities identified at least four of the victims as Aldridge's cousins, Garold Dee Aldridge, 52; Julie Ann Aldridge, 47; Harold Wayne Aldridge, 50; and Janell Arlisa Aldridge, 48, the Missouri Highway Patrol said.

"In our job we see a lot of bad stuff, and this is bad, this is also hard on the police officers who are working that there," Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Kinder told reporters. "It's not natural to see that sort of thing."

All of the shootings took place within a three-mile radius of this tight-knit community, the highway patrol said. The names of the other three victims were still being withheld.

Deputies found bodies in five separate homes after responding to a 911 call around 10:15 p.m. Thursday regarding a disturbance.

The caller, a 15-year-old girl, reported hearing shots in her house and had fled to a neighbor's home to call the sheriff's office, Texas County Coroner Tom Whittaker told KSDK-TV's Mike Rush.

That neighbor, who declined to give his name, told the Springfield News-Leader that the girl was crying when she knocked on his door and told him that her mother and father had been shot.

"She was barefoot, in a nightgown with no sleeves at all and her legs were all scratched up from briars," he said. "She said she seen a man in her dad's bedroom, talking to him in a normal voice. Then she said she heard gunshots and screaming."

Over the next three hours, deputies found two bodies, a man and a woman, at the first house then five more bodies at three more homes. In addition, one woman was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds. A 10-year-old boy was asleep in one of the homes during the shooting spree and was not injured.

The shooting victims included three women and four men, ranging in age from the early 40s to mid 60s. Some had been shot in the head. All had been shot by a large caliber handgun.

Alice Aldridge's body was found at yet another residence. Officers had gone to the house, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, looking for the younger Aldridge because the survivor at one of the crime scenes had identified him as the gunman.

Whittaker said Aldridge, who was in her 70s and under a doctor's care, had been dead at least 24 hours. He also said there were no visible signs of trauma, indicating she died of her undisclosed illness.

Whittaker says the killing spree may have been sparked by Joseph Aldridge's discovery of his mother's body. The coroner did not speculate on why the gunman's victims were targeted.

Aldridge's body was found just outside the gate to Warren Barnes' goat ranch in Summersville.

Barnes, whose son used to be friends with Aldridge, told the News-Leader that he and his wife were awakened late Thursday by the sound of what they thought was snow or ice coming off the house "but was instead a gunshot."

Hours later, they were awakened again, this time by a knock on the door from highway patrol officers who had just discovered Aldridge's body nearby.

Barnes said his son had told Aldridge about a year ago to stop contacting him because Aldridge was involved with drugs.
"He had just got too strange-acting, and was saying real off-the-wall crazy stuff," Barnes said.

But earlier in his life, Barnes said, Aldridge was "a real quiet person," although he "didn't have a good home life."

"He was quiet, nice – didn't get into fights at school, stuff like that," he said.

Doug Stanglin reported from McLean, Va.; Contributing: Brandie Piper, KSDK-TV in St. Louis; Thomas Gounley, Springfield News-Leader.

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