An abducted 1-year-old girl was found safe after her mother and two siblings were shot dead at a home in Missouri late Thursday night, authorities said.
The suspected shooter, identified as 35-year-old Bobby McCulley III was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to officials.
Authorities confirmed at a news conference Friday afternoon that a man wanted on suspicion of shooting and killing his estranged wife and two of her children before abducting the 1-year-old child they shared has died.
Bobby McCulley III killed himself as officers were closing in on him, investigators said. He had been wanted for the killings of 34-year-old Roseann McCulley, her 13-year-old son Kayden Johnson and her 6-year-old daughter Kaylee Brooks.
Officials issued an Amber Alert after discovering that the McCulleys’ 1-year-old daughter, Zoe Page Hurst McCulley, had been abducted. She was later found safe at another family member’s house, authorities said.
St. Louis County police Lt. Col. Steve Sack said police were called Thursday night to respond to a report of a suspicious person at Roseann McCulley’s home.
“They searched the area and did not locate anybody out there at the time, but three hours later they received a call for shots fired,” Sack said. “When they responded, they found a window opened in the residence, and that’s where they located three victims.”
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said a domestic violence complaint was filed against Bobby McCulley in 2017, but the case wasn’t pursued because the victim declined to cooperate with investigators and evidence was scarce.
“We’ve all heard the saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’” Bell said Friday. “I also think it takes a village to protect a child and protect family members, and too often domestic violence is seen as a problem for women, for victims, when it needs to be a problem for all of us.”
Bobby McCulley and Roseann McCulley got married on July 29, 2018, and separated on Feb. 20, according to divorce papers filed late last month and obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Original report: According to KMOV and KSDK, St. Louis County police are searching for Bobby McCulley III, 35, after officers found the bodies of a 34-year-old mother, her 13-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter in a Lockwig Trail home shortly before midnight. All three had been shot and killed, police said.
Investigators, who believe McCulley abducted his infant daughter from the home and fled, issued an Amber Alert for the baby early Friday, the news outlets reported. Authorities later found her “safe and unharmed with alternate family members,” the Missouri State Highway Patrol wrote in a Facebook post Friday morning.
McCulley remains at large, the post said.
Authorities said McCulley, who is 5-foot-7 and weighs about 180 pounds, may be driving a silver 2010 Dodge Charger with Missouri tag ZC6-T3V, KSDK reported.
Tell us your thoughts...