Missouri gunman kills 8 - Philly.com

Jim Salter, Associated Press

Posted: Sunday, March 1, 2015, 3:01 AM

TYRONE, Mo. - A man who authorities say may have been unhinged by the death of his ailing mother killed seven people and then took his own life in a house-to-house shooting rampage that wiped out a swath of this tiny town in the Missouri Ozarks.

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 community of about 50 people where he lived with his mother, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Joseph Aldridge was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before dawn in a running pickup truck on the middle of a highway 15 or 20 miles away.

The patrol said four of the dead - two couples - were cousins of Aldridge's, ranging in age from 47 to 52. The names of the rest of the dead - and an eighth victim who was wounded but expected to survive - were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

All the victims were adults and were gunned down within a few miles of one another.

Authorities said the motive was unclear and no suicide note was found. But as the investigation unfolded, they found Aldridge's mother, Alice L. Aldridge, 74, dead, apparently of natural causes, on a couch at her home, officials said.

She had been under a doctor's care and appeared to have been dead at least 24 hours, Texas County Coroner Tom Whittaker told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Whittaker speculated that the son "came home and found her deceased and then for whatever reason went on a rampage and started killing people."

Around town, Aldridge was described as a recluse, and it was unclear what, if anything, he did for a living.