18 year old kills 5 & himself on day of graduation
(CNN) -- On the same day he was to attend his high school graduation ceremony, Scott Moody, 18, shot five friends and relatives to death and wounded another before killing himself, Ohio police said Monday.
Logan County Sheriff Michael Henry said Moody shot people Sunday in two nearby homes outside Bellefontaine in an apparent murder-suicide. Moody's sister Stacy Moody, 15, was wounded in the neck and was hospitalized Monday in critical condition, Henry said.
Scott Moody's body was found in a house Sunday along with the bodies of his mother, Sheri Shafer, 37, and two of his friends, Megan Karus, 19, and Paige Harshbarger, 14. Stacy Moody was found in the kitchen of the home after managing to call her step-sister, who alerted authorities, Henry said.
The bodies of Scott Moody's grandparents, Sharyl Shafer, 66, and Gary Shafer, 67, were found dead in the kitchen of another house about a quarter mile away, he said.
Henry said investigators don't know the reasons behind the shootings. "That's the main, No. 1 question -- why?" he said.
The shootings probably began at the grandparents' home between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday, Henry said. Moody apparently shot the victims while they were sleeping, said Det. Jeff Cooper, who added a .22-caliber Marlin rifle found at the scene was being tested.
Cooper said there had been a party at the other house -- where most of the victims were found. Scott Moody and Megan Karus were due to graduate Sunday from Riverside High School in nearby De Graff, Ohio, Cooper said. He said autopsies were being conducted on all the victims.
Cooper said Karus' body was found in the living room of the second home and the bodies of Harshbarger, Sheri Shafer, and Moody were all found in bedrooms upstairs.
The killings have shocked the town of about 13,000, about 45 miles northwest of Columbus, Henry said. "You can't describe how you feel," he said. "It's tough. It's very tough on everyone. I feel so bad for the families."
Before the killings, police had visited Scott Moody's home in response to 10 "nuisance calls," Henry said, but nothing serious was reported. A neighbor, Iris Angle, said the tragedy was "such a shock" and the victims were "very nice people, nice neighbors."
"I just can't imagine what they're going through," she said.
CNN.com
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