Mom And 2 Kids Found Dead In SUV After She Gunned Down Husband’s Girlfriend

Police found the bodies of a woman, Jessica Edens, 36, and her two children locked inside a running vehicle, each died from a single gunshot wound to the head or neck. Police stated that before killing her children and herself, Jessica Edens gunned down the girlfriend of her estranged husband just hours earlier in the parking area of the apartment complex where her husband, Ben Edens, lives.

It appears that she then drove several miles, pulled into a gas station parking lot and killed her two young children and turned the gun on herself. Police found all three dead in the running SUV.

The woman, Meredith Rahme, 28, was shot in her car on Thursday around 5 p.m. and police report it was Jessica Edens who pulled the trigger. Rahme was pronounced dead at the scene in Greenville, South Carolina. According to People Magazine, Jessica Edens and her children were found several miles away from that scene. They were discovered dead in their SUV in a Speedway gas station parking lot in Pickens, South Carolina.

The children were identified as Harper Edens, Jessica’s 9-year-old son, and Hayden King, her 5-year-old daughter. The police found a.40-caliber handgun inside Eden’s SUV, reports the New York Daily News.

The police found Edens and her children about 2-hours after they had found Rahme’s shot dead in her car. Jessica Edens and her estranged husband had been involved in a custody dispute over one of the children.

Suspect in South Carolina shooting found dead in car with kids https://t.co/Ftd4l8Robi

— Rodney McMillan (@rodneymcmillan9) July 15, 2017

Police had been out to Jessica Edens’ house the day before and she had complained to one of the officers that her estranged husband was having an affair. Meredith Rahme had also called the police in the weeks leading up to this shooting. She had complained she was receiving harassing phone calls and text messages from Jessica Edens.

At a news conference following the shooting death of Rahme and before Edens and her children were found dead, police told the reporters that Rahme had been shot dead in her car by Edens, who had her children with her at the time of the shooting. Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said on Friday that Rahme had called the police twice about three weeks ago asking how she could deal with Edens’ harassing text messages, online postings, and phone calls.

Edens’ estranged husband had called the police on Wednesday this week asking if they would check on his daughter. They had been in court earlier in the day for the custody battle of their daughter and he told police he received a disturbing text message from Jessica Edens that evening.

When police went to Jessica Edens’ house, they found the kids and Jessica getting ready to watch a movie and they were making popcorn. One of the children was on the phone with their father at the time police arrived. While there and talking with Jessica, one officer asked if there was a chance the two could get back together, according to the New York Post.

The officer said she was more invested in exposing her estranged husband’s year-long affair in court. Rahme worked with Jessica’s estranged husband, but that is all the information the police would offer about the relationship between Rahme and the estranged husband.

Miller said that Jessica Edens gave no indication that she was about to do any type of violent act. After the bodies of Edens and her children were discovered, information was revealed that there was some sense she might have been planning some violence on her children, herself or both, Miller said.

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