COLUMBIA — A man who authorities say may have been unhinged by the death of his ailing mother went on a house-to-house shooting rampage in a small town in the Missouri Ozarks, killing seven people before taking his own life.
Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, carried out the killings with a .45-caliber handgun Thursday night or early Friday at four homes in Tyrone, the no-stoplight town of about 50 people where he lived about 150 miles south of Columbia, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
Aldridge's body later was found before dawn Friday in a running pickup truck on the middle of a highway in a neighboring county, about 15 or 20 miles from Tyrone. No suicide note was found, authorities said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol released the names of four victims of the shooting: Garold Dee Aldridge, 52, Julie Ann Aldridge, 47, Harold Wayne Aldridge, 50, and Janell Arlisa Aldridge, 48. Authorities are withholding the names of three additional victims until their families can be notified.
According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol news release, the victims are believed to be cousins of the 36-year-old suspected shooter.
The Associated Press reported that Texas County Coroner Tom Whittaker told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that before Joseph Aldridge was discovered dead, authorities found his mother Alice Aldridge, 74, who died of apparent natural causes on a couch at her home.
She had been under a doctor's care and appeared to have been dead at least 24 hours, the coroner said. Her autopsy is scheduled for Saturday, according to the Highway Patrol.
Whittaker said investigators were still gathering evidence, but he speculated that the son "came home and found her deceased and then for whatever reason went on a rampage and started killing people."
The rampage began around 10:15 p.m. Thursday, when the Texas County Sheriff's Department requested assistance in a weapons-related disturbance at a home in Tyrone.
A female juvenile caller said she was in the residence and heard gunshots, according to a news release from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. She ran to a neighbor's house, where she called the authorities.
Responding deputies found two deceased people in the home. Upon further investigation, responders found five additional deceased victims and one wounded victim in three other homes in Tyrone. The wounded victim was taken to a local hospital.
"Everybody is kind of just dazed I'd guess you'd say," John W. Shriver, 72, of Tyrone, told The Associated Press, adding that the killer "didn't have much to do with people" and "kind of stayed to himself."
The Texas County Sheriff’s Department and the Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control are investigating. The Highway Patrol had seven officers at six active crime scenes — the five homes and the vehicle where the suspect was found. Officers had cleared from the crime scenes by mid-afternoon Friday, but the investigation is ongoing.
Gov. Jay Nixon said the state's Department of Mental Health has contacted the local community mental health center to ensure that crisis intervention services will be available.