Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 2, 2019 2:26:19 GMT -5
‘Controlling Ex-Boyfriend’ Kills Girl and Himself
When Adele Singer arrived at her home in San Carlos, California, around 8 o’clock on the evening of Tuesday, February 26, all she could do was scream. A nearby neighbor, hearing the woman’s anguished cries, called 911 and upon arrival, police discovered the bodies of 19-year-old Willow Singer and Thomas Jordan Hayes, also 19, lying in the doorway of the house. The teens were graduates of Patrick Henry High School and had dated at one time. Willow Singer had plans to attend college.
Lt. Anthony Dupree of the San Diego Police Department said the two young people died of gunshot wounds to the upper body in an apparent murder-suicide in which Hayes shot Singer with a handgun before turning the weapon on himself.
“She [Adele Singer] is going to have that memory in her head,” Barbara Sennet, a neighbor, told NBC 7. “And she went from having a husband and a daughter to just having a son, that fast. It’s just almost frightening. How quickly, with the snap of your fingers, life can change for you. ... Nothing you can say. It’s a nightmare. It’s a total nightmare. Very, very hard to comprehend.”
Mrs. Singer, who had lost her husband to cancer just days earlier, was too distraught to speak on camera, but took to Facebook the following day, posting: “As many of you know, my beloved daughter Willow was senselessly shot and killed in front of our home Tuesday. The man who did this also took his own life. This, too, is a tragedy, but it is not our tragedy … Willow was beyond precious to us, and what this man did left a hole in our lives and hearts that can never be filled.”
The family requested privacy, but one of the Singer relatives said Hayes was a “controlling ex-boyfriend.”
Barbara Sennet confirmed the relative’s description of Hayes. “He has a family and you know that his mother and parents, this is devastating for them too, so, so many people are affected by what’s happened.” However, she added it’s the Singer family for whom her heart hurts. “Why,” she asked. “Why to such a nice family does something like this have to happen? There’s no explanation.”
Police are continuing to investigate.
Sources: Karen Mizoguchi, People, February 28, 2019; Kristen Shanahan, KSWB, February 27, 2019; and Rafael Avitabile and R. Stickney, KNSD, February 26, 2019.
