Two Franklin residents are dead after a domestic dispute last Thursday night.
On Thursday, Aug. 5, at 10:43 p.m., Deputy Jay Wright responded to a report of a domestic situation at 78 Johnson Road. The dispute was between Robert Dean Childers, age 62, and Sandra Holder Reece, age 61, who shared the residence. Childers made a call to a family member during the fight, during which the family member overheard two gunshots and called the authorities. When the deputy and the family member arrived on the scene, they found Childers and Reece in the bedroom area of the home with gunshot wounds. Reece was already dead, but Childers was still alive and in critical condition.
“During the dispute, the male subject contacted a family member over the phone,” Sheriff Robert Holland said. “Based on the statements we’ve received, the male subject shot the female, apologized to the caller and then suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Once help arrived, Childers was transported to Memorial Mission Hospital, where he later died. Both individuals’ next of kin have been contacted about the incident. In a release from the Sheriff’s Office on Friday, Holland confirmed this was an isolated incident and other neighborhood residents had not been in any danger.
“While this investigation remains ongoing, we would like the community to know we feel there is no concern for any additional threats to the community due to our preliminary findings,” Holland said on Friday, Aug. 6. “It was quickly evident that this was a domestic between the two parties found injured and that one had shot the other. There is no evidence whatsoever that there was anyone else at the home at the time of the shooting.”