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Courtney Taylor Murder Update: New Details Emerge About Kentucky Mom Accused Of Murdering Her Husband And Two Daughters In Their Beds

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 07:12 PST, Jan 15, 2017

Courtney Taylor is accused of shooting her husband and two teenage daughters to death before pointing a gun at police, who shot the 41-year-old woman in a morbid crime that has gained nationwide attention.

Now, police have released new details about the slayings, including where the family members were reportedly killed.

The shootings took place on Friday, leaving the three family members dead and Courtney Taylor wounded from her gunshot wound. The Kentucky nurse was taken to a hospital and expected to survive, and police are still trying to determine the motive for the grisly crime.

Investigators said the two teenage girls —18-year-old Jessie and 13-year-old Jolee — may have been killed in their sleep.

“There was no struggle. They were all shot in the head,” Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell said (via WKYT).

Courtney’s husband, 51-year-old Larry Taylor, was also found dead in his bed.

Investigators said the family members may have been dead for several hours before police arrived at the house. As police came, Courtney Taylor reportedly raised a gun and refused to put it down.

“He repeated [told her to] put down the weapon, she didn’t, and he fired,” Sheriff Harrell described.

Police said the triple homicide was discovered when another family member went to the home to check on the family members.

“He must’ve observed a body and retreated,” Harrell said (via Kentucky.com).

Harnell said the crime was a shock to the otherwise quiet community. They noted that Courtney Taylor had shown no previous signs that she could be capable of such violence, and said there had been no previous calls to the family’s home.

“You try to put a place for things in your life, in someone else’s life, especially if they’re close to you and this is something that would be hard to do,” he said.

The alleged murders had striking similarities to another case from Texas last year. In July, 42-year-old mother Christy Sheats was accused of shooting her two daughters to death in the street as neighbors looked on and her husband reportedly begged her to stop.

Police said Sheats called a family meting and then pulled a handgun and started shooting her two daughters — 17-year-old Madison Sheats and 22-year-old Taylor Sheats. The girls ran from the home but Christy reportedly chased them, shooting the girls to death in the street.

The disturbing crime was laid out in 911 calls released days after the shootings. As the Huffington Post noted, the phone recordings showed the girls begging for their lives while Christy Sheats chased them down.

“In calls from Taylor Sheats, 22, and Madison Sheats, 17, they both can be heard begging their mother to put the gun down. ‘Please, don’t shoot. Please, I’m sorry. Don’t do it,’ one of the young women urges.

“The voice of a man, presumably the girls’ father, Jason Sheats, 45, can be heard saying: ‘I’m sorry! I promise you whatever you want.'”

The call also revealed the panic of neighbors who watched the killings unfold.

“Hopefully, she’s not getting any more bullets because it looks like she’s going to need some more bullets,” the panicked neighbor said.

The exact sequence of events in the Taylor killings was not yet reported, and police said they are still trying to determine a motive for the slayings.

Courtney Taylor was listed in critical condition after allegedly shooting her husband and two daughters to death.

[Featured Image by artolympic/iStock]

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