Tennessee man, 64, kills wife and 6-year-old grandson before turning gun on himself in disturbing murder-suicide
A Tennessee grandfather shot his wife and young grandson to death before turning the gun on himself in a disturbing murder-suicide, according to police.
Sixty four-year-old Terry Majors allegedly shot dead his 61-year-old wife, Leigh Shea-Majors, and their six-year-old grandson, Ty Dodson, before killing himself on Saturday night, WKRN reports. Authorities said Terry's four-year-old granddaughter witnessed the crime before running to a neighbor's home for help. She was unharmed.
The shooting took place in the neighborhood of Hermitage, per Metropolitan Nashville Police, who are currently investigating the murder-suicide. The youngsters were on their usual weekend visit to their maternal grandparents when the shooting occurred. According to the report, Leigh and Terry were parents of Jennifer Smalling, Ty's mother, while his father is said to have died before he was born.
Neighbors were left "dumbfounded" after the incident, saying Majors loved his "grandkids very very much." "Very great guy, used to mow the yard, neighbors' yards, and things. Helped neighbors out. His wife was a very good person," Chely Wilson told WKRN. "I'm just as dumbfounded as everybody else is to why something like this had happened. I know that they loved their grandkids very very much."
Chase Dodson, Ty's uncle, believes his six-year-old nephew would have told his younger sister to run from the house. "My nephew Ty Dodson was visiting his grandparents on his mom's side this past Saturday night in Tennessee," Chase wrote on Facebook. "This visit went extremely wrong and the step-grandad murdered his wife, my nephew, and then cowardly turned the gun on himself. This was a shock to both sides of Ty's family."
"August 26th, 2013 Changed my life forever," Chase wrote in an earlier post celebrating Ty's birthday. "Although, with a broken heart from the loss of my brother, and your father only 15 days earlier I tried my best to stay strong. I stood in the medical room holding your mom's hand so tight, and once you were born I cut your umbilical cord. As soon as I laid my eyes on you I immediately fell in love."
"Ty, You will never understand how special you are to me," he continued. "You have grown so fast, and I'm so proud of the young man you have become. Uncle Chase loves you to the moon & back."
Ty's former pre-school teacher at Allen County Primary Center, Tabitha Collins, said he was known in school as "Ty the Science Guy" and that he was "very smart, very curious."
"He was constantly smiling and wanting to take care of everyone," she added. "He has a little sister that's in preschool this year, who he walks in and just makes sure that she would get to school and in the classroom okay."
"It's so hard, when those kids come into your classroom, they become your own and I can't describe how much I love Ty," Collins explained. "I still just don't want to believe he's gone. It's just 'why?' He's so young."
Authorities in Nashville confirmed the deaths on Twitter. "Update on Sat's apparent double murder-suicide case on Dockside Dr: Terry Majors, 64, is believed to have fatally shot his wife, Leigh Shea-Majors, 61, & his grandson, Ty Dodson, 6, before killing himself," the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department tweeted. "His 4-yr-old granddaughter was uninjured & ran to a neighbor for help."