Ohio Officials: Teen Kills Self, 5 Others On Graduation Day

[Archae]

Ohio Officials: Teen Kills Self, 5 Others On Graduation Day

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio -- Officials in Ohio said a high school student who was hours away from graduation killed three family members, two others and himself Sunday.

Officials said 18-year-old Scott Moody shot and killed his grandparents, his mother and two teenage girls who were friends of the family. One of the girls was supposed to graduate with Moody.

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/4547148/detail.html

Why?

[Panda1]

1. Tragic.

Why, indeed.
What torment caused this?

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/3009.html
...

While the bodies of Harshbarger, Karus, Scott Moody, and Sheri Shafer were found in one house along with the injured Stacy Moody, the bodies of Sharyl Shafer and her husband Gary were recovered from the second house.
...
He said no motive for the murders has been established yet. “We’re still trying to piece together what happened and who fired the shots. We’re not even sure what time the shootings occurred,” he said.

Police officials had earlier received several complaints about noise and nuisance from one of the farmhouses. They had visited the house several times. “We’ve had nuisance calls at that residence. But we’ve had no domestic violence calls there,” said Henry, adding that murder wasn’t a common thing in this close-knit community. “We’re all stunned. The family in this case is stunned. You can just imagine how we’re all dealing with this. These are tough things to swallow,” he said.
...

[Archae]

2. Sounds like...

The kid simply flipped out.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. One does NOT "simply flip out".

There's a disastrous underlying cause. Something, or a life-long series of things, led up to this. I'm sure once his life is examined, there will be many fairly obvious warning signs that were ignored or laughed off by one and all.

To kill your family and then yourself is not a simple thing at all.

[AngryOldDem]

14. One theory

Local news outlets are covering this story.

The family has been messed up for many years. Apparently the grandmother, who owned the farm property, wrote a bad will, which apparently caused a lot of problems. The kid's parents split, and it sounds like he became the glue that held everybody together. That is an impossible task to expect a kid to assume. A quote in the paper said that he went from being a polite kid to a sullen teenager. But the sheriff admits that they may never know the real reason why the kid went off like this.

The sister is in critical condition at a Columbus hospital, the last I heard.

[MissMarple]

3. Blessed be. This is just too sad.

I hope his sister survives...well.

[margaritamama]

19. No matter what

she will never be the same. If she survives part of her life has died due to this tragedy. Simply horrific.

[ninkasi]

5. How very sad...

it makes me wonder what despair he felt, what hopelessness controlled his life, to do a thing like this. Suicide is bad enough, because survivors are often left with feelings of guilt and grief. Taking one's own life is tragic enough, but to take other lives, too, is beyond my comprehension.

I have often wondered, in situations like this, what inner rage triggered his act, and how much hostility he must have felt to take others with him. Wrong, and sad, and the survivors are facing a long, difficult road.

[genieroze]

6. Ohio teen kills five and himself

Breaking News

HEADLINES

1:42 pm


Ohio teen kills five and himself
5/31/2005 9:25 AM
By: The Associated Press



Authorities in Bellefontaine, Ohio, said they may never find out why a teenager killed five people and himself as he was about to graduate from high school.

Preliminary evidence from this weekend's shooting at neighboring farmhouses suggests that Scott Moody went to the house next door Sunday morning and killed his grandparents with a 22-caliber rifle.



WATCH THE VIDEO
More Information

Ohio teen kills five and himself

Police in Ohio said they will probably never know why a teenager shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself.





Authorities said he then returned home to shoot his mother and two friends. Police said Moody also wounded his younger sister before committing suicide.

The town's sheriff said there was no sign of a struggle at either house, and that it appeared some of the victims were killed in their sleep. Stacy Moody, who was shot in the neck, remains hospitalized in critical condition.

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=133497&SecID=33

[gratuitous]

7. I wonder . . .

Was young Mr. Moody on any prescription medications? Perhaps ones which have a "low occurrence of side effects" such as depression or violence?

[MichiDem]

8. Another easy access to

guns story.

[DoNotRefill]

9. Uh huh....

so if he'd blown up the people using a propane tank bomb, it somehow would have been less horrific?

[MichiDem]

10. But he didn't

so it's moot.

[AirAmFan]

11. Having guns around makes it too easy to kill. Pulling a trigger

is so quick there are only seconds for reflection that might lead to saner decisions. Other methods of lethal violence take minutes, hours, days, or weeks of time and effort, allowing more opportunitiy for impulse control.

[DoNotRefill]

12. Really?

minutes, hours, days, or weeks?

How long does it take to detach a propane tank from a grille, bring it inside, open/crack the valve, and then light a match?

How long does it take to blow out the furnace pilot light, crank up the gas, and then light a match?

Hell, for that matter, how long does it take to fill the bathtub and then drown your kids?

Where there's a will, there's a way, and as I'm sure you know, this wasn't some spur of the moment thing that happened...and the kid broke a shitload of gun control laws before he started shooting people...

It's far easier to blame the tools than it is to blame the real cause...PEOPLE.

[maxsolomon]

15. yes, yes. the kid COULD have done those things

but he didn't. he used his .22 caliber shotgun. guns make killing easy. why deny it?

thanks for the idea about the propane tank bomb. i'm sure some idiot will try it now.

[DoNotRefill]

16. It's been done before....

remember Columbine? They set off a bunch of different IEDs there. And there's no such thing as a ".22 caliber shotgun".

[slackmaster]

20. Google "Marlin garden gun"

Marlin did make a .22 rimfire shotgun for a while. It's not very practical, but one creative reviewer came up with a game using soda crackers as flying targets.

[DoNotRefill]

21. Remember what happened with them?

Hmmm....16 inch barrel with a smooth bore....Oh, yeah! The term "SBS" comes to mind!

IIRC, a buncha people went to jail over that before they caught on...

[maxsolomon]

23. that's just what i heard. with a .22

i suppose it could have been a handgun, but given the rural setting & my gun ignorance, i assumed.

mea maxima culpa.

[hector459]

13. Guns and drugs are a dangerous combination.

I just don't see all the love fest about guns.

[DoNotRefill]

17. It's not a "love fest about guns"....

guns are just a tool. Blaming the tool is really, really stupid. If you cut yourself in the kitchen while chopping veggies, is it the knife's fault? Of course not. If you're cutting wood with a chainsaw and it kicks back, is it the saw's fault? Of course not. It's the OPERATOR's fault.

[Algorem]

18. Police uncover possible motive for six deaths

Police uncover possible motive for six deaths
From WKYC-TV 3 reports
May 31, 2005
http://www.cleveland.com/wkyc/index.ssf?/news/more/05shooting31.html


BELLEFONTAINE -- Financial and family troubles may have plagued an Ohio teen suspected in six deaths over the weekend...

Published reports say a divorce and a dispute over a will led to problems among members of the family. They also say the Moodys’ once-thriving dairy farm was in disrepair and falling behind on production.

Published reports say a divorce and a dispute over a will led to problems among members of the family. They also say the Moodys’ once-thriving dairy farm was in disrepair and falling behind on production.

The Sunday morning rampage has perplexed school officials who knew Scott Moody and said he was in good spirits. The deaths came hours after a family party celebrating his high school graduation -- and hours before commencement ceremonies were set to start.

[okieinpain]

22. while we are on the subject of gun violence. I was watching the

movie about that shoot-out in California, in 1997. I was just amazing to me how many people were just standing around waiting to see what was going to happen.

Myself I see a cop with his gun out, and I'm out of there fuck seeing what might happen.