A West Virginia man allegedly fatally shot his wife and daughter Monday before shooting himself.
The 24-year-old woman identified as Alicia Thomas and her 5-year-old daughter Myra were found by relatives dead inside their Mink Shoals home shortly after 11 a.m., according to Sgt.
Brian Humphreys of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office.
Man fatally shot his wife and 5-year-old daughter before shooting himself
Alicia’s husband, Donald Thomas, 28, was also found dead inside the home along with a gun authorities believe he used in an apparent double murder-suicide, the sheriff’s office said.
The couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Lona, was also found inside the home, alive but in critical condition. She was airlifted to a children’s hospital, where she underwent surgery to remove a bullet from her head.
She is currently listed as critically stable and in the hospital’s ICU, according to the sheriff’s office.
At a news conference Monday, Humphreys said local relatives discovered the family after no one had heard from them for several days.
Alicia’s mother, Tracy Miller, had not heard from her daughter since the previous Thursday, but knew she was planning to move out of the house, she told WHSV.
“She had gotten an apartment and paid the down payment and was finally able to do this on her own with the kids and that was the last time I talked to her,” Miller said. “My kids are dead because she wanted to leave, that’s the bottom line.”
Seven 911 calls had been made to the residence over the past year, though only one was related to domestic violence, Humphreys told reporters.
The others were related to economic crimes, stalking and neighbor disputes.
In February, Donald Thomas was charged with domestic assault. However, the charges were dropped in June after Alicia failed to appear in court, Humphreys said during the press conference.
