Hayes, Haley and Richard Heatwole

CANDLER, N.C. — I had been following a story over the New Years holiday in which a man had allegedly shot and killed his ex-wife, two neighbors and then abducted his two young children. The last I had checked before crashing last night, was that police were still looking for him driving a white Toyota Tundra. I woke up this morning to see that the three had been located at a residence, and that a standoff was live and in progress.

According to Steve Huff over at True Crime Report, shit went down on New Years Day when 911 calls came in about a shooting. When police arrived at a neighborhhod on Old Highway 19-23 they found three bodies in two houses. Two of the victims have not been identified, but one of them was Angela Heatwole, 49. The alleged shooter was reportedly 45-year-old Richard Heatwole, Angela’s estranged husband and father of their two children. After the shooting, Richard left the scne taking Hayes Heatwole, 6, and Haley Heatwole, 10, along with him. This triggered a statewide Amber Alert.

Police recieved a tip this morning that Richard, who has a history of domestic violence, and two children were at his cousin’s house in nearby Taylorsville, N.C. A hostage situation was then initiated while police tried to get Richard to release the two girls. Sometime during the night, a single gunshot was heard and as of this morning news reports are saying that Richard was dead, victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two girls where then released to officials.

It’s good to know that these two escaped this ordeal with their lives, but what a way to start a new year.  No word on the who the two people were in the other home, but I am gonna take a guess that they were Angela’s parents. I start off the morning with cocaine dried around my nostrils staring at the blotchy back of a passed out hooker, and these two girls may have just lost their parents and a set of grandparents in 24 hours.