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Six Dead In Breathitt County Shotgun Rampage

Listen to WSGS NEWS Coverage   Stanley Neace, who was facing eviction over his hostile temper,  became enraged by how his wife cooked his eggs and killed her, his stepdaughter and three neighbors with a shotgun before shooting himself.  According to the Lexington Herald - the victims were identified by state police as Sandra J. Neace, 54, Dennis J. Turner, 31, Sandra R. Strong, 28, Tammy R. Kilborn, 40, and Teresa G. Fugate (also identified by the coroner as Teresa Blanton), 30.  Neace killed himself in his mobile home.  The victims were found in two other homes in the park.  Friends and neighbors said Sandra, or Cassandra Neace, was Stanley's wife, and Sandra Rachel Strong was her daughter.  Turner was a neighbor (and Sandra Strong's boyfriend) whom Sandra Neace ran to for help, with Stanley in pursuit, they said. Fugate and Kilborn also were neighbors.  Neighbors said they heard shots and thought someone was shooting down by the North Fork of the Kentucky River. Then they heard screams.  They saw Stanley Neace chasing Sandra Neace around a Jeep, shooting out the vehicle's windows.  Sandra Neace ran to Turner's mobile home, and Stanley followed.  There he killed Sandra Neace, Sandra Rachel Strong, Turner and Fugate, who was visiting Turner.  Breathitt County Deputy Coroner Mitch Smith said two of the women were killed in a back bedroom and Turner and one of the women were killed in a bathtub. They were clothed, he said, and Turner was on top of the woman, perhaps trying to shield her.  "There was really nowhere to hide," Smith said. "Literally, all the witnesses are dead."  Two neighbors said one of Fugate's young children ran out of that mobile home and into Tammy Kilborn's home.  Kilborn hid the child in a bathroom, but Stanley Neace, who had followed the child, shot Kilborn in a hallway of her home.  Stanley Neace apparently was after Kilborn, not the child. Smith, the deputy coroner, said Stanley Neace came to Kilborn's trailer and asked where she was, then shot her when he saw her.  "Everybody was running here and there — it was total chaos," said J.D. Kilborn, Tammy Kilborn's husband.  Steve Smith, a neighbor, told the Herald-Leader that Stanley Neace shot at him, but missed. "I was wondering where the law was," during the ordeal, Steve Smith said.  Smith said Neace ended up mumbling to himself on the porch of his trailer, pointed the shotgun at his head and pulled the trigger.  Smith told the Herald-Leader that the couple had been arguing for a week, but he didn't know why.

Trooper Jody Sims with the State Police in Hazard said they were notified at 11:35 a.m. that shots had been fired in the Mount Carmel area. When they arrived at the trailer park, they heard a shot and found Neace dead.  Some neighbors, including Steve Smith, said that Stanley Neace was a drug dealer, but he had no record that was apparent Saturday.  Breahitt County prosecutor Brendon Miller told the Associated Press that his dealings with Neace came on nonviolent issues involving child support. Stanley Neace also was in Miller's office a month ago regarding a traffic ticket.

Landlord Ray Rastegar said Neace received monthly disability checks from the Social Security Administration, though he didn't know what his disability was. Rastegar told the AP that he had begun the process of evicting Neace, who had lived in the trailer park for about seven years, because he had become increasingly hostile toward neighbors in recent months. "He was unpredictable," Rastegar told the AP. "Little things would set him off."

Irene Kilburn, a niece of Tammy Kilborn (they spell their last names differently), said Tammy took care of her husband, J.D., who has lung cancer. She was the kind of woman who would do anything to help another person, Irene Kilburn said.  "She didn't care if she had to go 100 miles out of her way. If she could help you, she would."  One of Tammy Kilborn's daughters, Natasha Leggett, was visiting her mother and left just before the rampage started.  She struggled to control her emotions as she talked with a reporter.  "I just want to bust everything in here," she said. 

There were stories flying all over Breathitt County about what started it all, but no one was sure.  The Associated Press reported Sherri Anne Robinson, 17, who was Fugate's half-sister and Turner's cousin, said she was told Stanley Neace became enraged because Sandra Neace cooked his eggs in a way that displeased him.  Late Saturday, Sims, assistant public affairs officer for the Hazard State Police post, said he had not heard that.  State police have not established a motive.

Irene Kilburn said she heard the Neaces were fighting about money, and some of the other victims owed Stanley Neace money.  George Griffith, Breathitt County coroner, said it was clear Stanley Neace was mad at his wife, but added that he didn't know why.  "He just went plumb off," Griffith said.  Regardless of the motive, the shooting left neighbors and relatives stunned.  "The way they was telling us he went from door to door, basically it was a massacre," Irene Kilburn said.