Citizen Murders 2 and Commits Suicide

[Citizens GoneCrazy]

May 31, 2004
LAKELAND,FLORIDA -- A Lakeland man angered by a breakup with his
girlfriend and separation from his children killed the estranged
girlfriend and her new boyfriend Sunday morning and then committed
suicide, Polk sheriff's officials said.
Todd Alan Foster, 34, shot Pamela J. Hatley, 32, and Jackie B. Jenkins,
31, at the well-kept mobile home on Myrtle Road that Foster and Hatley
shared until last week. She had taken the couple's two children and
moved in with Jenkins, sheriff's Col. Grady Judd said.
Investigators said the killing appeared to have been sparked by Foster's
anger over the separation from his children. Although he and Hatley
weren't married, they had a 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son
together.
There were no eyewitnesses to the shootings, but deputies interviewed a
friend of Foster's who spoke with him Sunday morning. They also
questioned Foster's mother, who lives in a second mobile home on the
large, treefilled property south of Duff Road.
Investigators were told Foster had expected Hatley to bring the children
to visit Friday night, but she never brought them. On Saturday night,
Hatley and Foster argued over the telephone, and early Sunday, Jenkins
called Foster and told him he and Hatley were coming to the home that
morning, Judd said.
"Jackie calls Todd Sunday morning and tells him he's worthless as a
father and he's going to be their new father," Judd said.
Enlarge this photo  Foster, angered by the conversation, spoke by
telephone with a friend. The friend called 911 and told an operator he
feared there was going to be a fight.
"He was afraid his friend would batter his ex-girlfriend and her
boyfriend," Judd said.
A deputy was dispatched and was on his way to the home when the killings
occurred.
Judd gave this account of what happened:
Hatley and Jenkins left the two children with friends or relatives in
Bartow. They drove to the Myrtle Road home and arrived about 9:40 a.m.
Foster grabbed a rifle, which had probably been stored in his truck
parked between the two mobile homes. He walked to Jenkins' truck, braced
himself on the tailgate and at close range shot Jenkins in the side.
Foster fired a second shot, striking Jenkins in the head.
Foster turned toward Hatley, who was standing in the open doorway of her
former home, several feet from where her boyfriend lay dead. Foster shot
her once in the head.
Foster's mother heard the gunshots and came out of her mobile home.
"He said, `I´ve already killed them and I love you, Mom,´ " Judd
said.
Foster's mother went back inside her home, and Foster walked to the back
of his home and shot himself as he stood under a large oak tree.
The deputy arrived a few minutes later and found the three bodies.
Other homes in the area are a distance away and deputies couldn't find
anyone who saw the shootings. A group of children playing in a yard
heard the gunshots.
Friends and acquaintances of Hatley and Foster who gathered outside the
Myrtle Road property Sunday said they were shocked by the killings.
"This is unreal," said Shirley Pattison, who met Hatley about three
years ago, but was not friends with Foster.
"It's senseless. Absolutely senseless."
"I feel so bad for those kids."
Hatley also had a 14-year-old son from a previous relationship, Judd
said. He didn't know if the teen lived with Hatley and Foster.
Judd said the younger children were told about the deaths of their
parents, but he didn't have information about who was caring for them.
Pattison said Hatley loved her children and enjoyed fishing, hunting and
spending time outdoors.
"She was just friendly, friendly -- friendly to everybody," Pattison
said.
The Sheriff's Office has investigated only one other homicide in 2004,
which was also a murder-suicide involving an estranged couple.
On Feb. 12, Wauchula resident Ken Williams shot and killed Will
Reynolds, also of Wauchula, who was romantically involved with Williams'
estranged wife, the Sheriff's Office said.
Reynolds was driving on U.S. 17 in Fort Meade with Mary Lou Williams
when Ken Williams drove along side the couple and shot Reynolds.
When Williams was confronted by an off-duty Hardee County deputy, he
shot himself and died the next day at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
"It's a very bizarre year," Judd said.
From January to June 2003, the Sheriff's Office investigated nine
homicides. There were seven homicides from July to December 2003, making
a yearly total of 16.