A dispute over whether a terminally ill woman should have been given tea and toast or an orange apparently upset her husband so much that he shot and killed two of her sisters and his son before killing himself. Click below to read the rest of the story.
The sick woman, 59-year-old Darlene Gilkey, who’s dying of cancer, witnessed the shootings from a hospital bed in her living room but was uninjured, Hocking County Sheriff Lanny North said.
The woman’s son, Ralph Sowers III, told a 911 dispatcher he survived when his stepfather, Paul Gilkey, said he was sparing him because he had kids. Sowers said his stepfather repeatedly warned him to get out of the way before putting the gun above his head and shooting his brother, who was hiding behind him.
After the shootings Monday, Paul Gilkey, 63, stepped out onto his front porch, sat down in a chair and shot himself to death, the sheriff said.
Killed inside the home were Darlene Gilkey’s sisters, Barbara Mohler, 70, of New Straitsville, and Dorothy Cherry, 63, of New Plymouth. Also killed was Paul Gilkey’s son, Leroy Gilkey, 38, of Columbus.
Paul Gilkey, who went by his middle name, Dave, was stressed and upset as he tried his best to care for his wife, whose cancer was diagnosed around Thanksgiving right after an injury at a local hospital where she worked, said his sister-in-law Peggy Gilkey, the wife of his brother Gary Gilkey.
Paul Gilkey felt as if other members of his wife’s family were taking over the care, and he was upset by the number of people in the house and the fact that things were already being taken out of the house in southeastern Ohio, Peggy Gilkey said.
Investigators say Leroy Gilkey had power of attorney over his mother, a fact that added to Paul Gilkey’s stress, according to Peggy Gilkey.
“He felt like that they were pushing him out and trying to take over,” Peggy Gilkey said Tuesday.
She added: “He was really trying to take care of her, but he felt like people weren’t letting him.”
She said Paul Gilkey and her husband talked several times a week about the situation.
She said her brother-in-law probably let his wife live because he loved her so much. The couple had divorced in 1975, shortly after he went to prison for a 1974 murder, but remarried a few years ago, she said.
North, the sheriff, said events leading to the shootings began earlier in the day when some of the victims had apparently served Darlene Gilkey tea and toast after Paul Gilkey had already peeled an orange for her. He said that led to an argument that escalated and culminated in the shootings.
