Oklahoma daughter charged with murder after video shows her giving gun to mother with dementia, who committed suicide: Police



An Oklahoma woman was charged with murder after allegedly supplying a gun to her elderly mother – who was suffering from dementia. The mother used the firearm to commit suicide, according to police.

Jaye Dee Watts, 44, is charged with felony murder by a caretaker and kidnapping.

According to court documents, the suspect was the primary caregiver for her 72-year-old mother – Lynda Watts.

On Sept. 10, police determined that the mother had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the home in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma City Police Department said Watts "intentionally provided a firearm to the victim which prompted the victim to take her own life."

Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Dillon Quirk informed KOCO-TV that the daughter "suggested that she take her own life." He added, "Very sadly, she did."

Authorities say that the daughter berated her dementia-ridden mother before the suicide. The alleged verbal abuse was caught on video recorded by a Ring camera inside the home.

Footage reportedly shows the daughter calling her incapacitated mother a toddler.

"Oh, I’m raising a 72-year-old toddler," the daughter allegedly said. "I can talk to you however I f***ing want to."

Court documents say the daughter told her mother to "take your pill or choke on it and die."

Video allegedly shows Jaye leaving her mother's bedroom, and returning with a handgun.

KOTV reported that Jaye can be heard on video telling her mother, "Here’s a gun," and adding, "Do with it what you f***ing will, b****.'"

Jaye reportedly instructed her mom on how to remove the gun from its holster.

According to authorities, the daughter came back to the room with a drill and told her mother that she was going to lock her in the bedroom.

Lynda Watts fired two shots moments later and killed herself, police said.

The Oklahoma City Police Department received an arrest warrant for Watts from the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office. Watts turned herself in to authorities.

Watts allegedly told police, "It sucks being a 24/7 caregiver."

Watts posted a $1 million bond, according to police.

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Following hours-long standoff, Oklahoma mother and her 3 children found dead in suspected murder-suicide



A mother and her three children were found dead in an Oklahoma home on Thursday following an hours-long standoff. The harrowing case is being investigated as a possible murder-suicide, according to police.

Around 4 p.m., police were notified of fireworks being fired from inside a house's garage in the small town of Verdigris, Oklahoma. Verdigris Police Chief Jack Shackleford said a Roman candle firework had been launched through a broken window and a woman and two children were locked in a garage at the house in the suburb east of Tulsa.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Hunter McKee said, "It was at that time that officer knew that there was something wrong, went to investigate, called for backup."

Tulsa World reported, "The officer discovered that a woman was trapped in the garage with some children and was using the Roman candle to try to attract attention to get help, Shackleford said."

The outlet added that a woman brought a child to the home for a supervised visitation, but the mother pointed a gun at the woman and took her child. The woman and two other children were locked in the garage, according to police.

Police were able to free the woman and the two children from the locked garage.

The armed mother barricaded herself and her three children in the house. A standoff began, and several agencies – including the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service's SWAT team – were called to the scene.

Shackleford said the police were familiar with the mother. Officers were dispatched to the home serval times in the past for domestic and mental health incidents, KOKI-TV reported.

Officers attempted to make contact with the armed mother during the hostage situation, McKee said.

After a three-hour standoff with no response from the mother, officers entered the home. McKee said once inside the home, officers "found an adult woman along with three children dead inside, all with apparent gunshot wounds."

The children ranged in age from a few months old to around 11 years old, according to reports.

Officers recovered a handgun at the crime scene.

Investigators are treating the case as a murder-suicide. The case is being handled by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have yet to release the identities of the mother and slain children.

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6 family members — including 4 kids — shot, their apartment set ablaze in apparent murder-suicide: Police

6 family members — including 4 kids — shot, their apartment set ablaze in apparent murder-suicide: Police



An entire blended family in Wisconsin is dead in what police believe may have been a horrific murder-suicide.

Just after 5 a.m. Friday morning, dispatchers received a call about a four-unit apartment building in Hartford, Wisconsin, which was on fire. When police and several fire department crews arrived, they managed to guide the people in three of the apartments to safety. However, they made a gruesome discovery in the fourth apartment, where the fire began: six dead bodies, four of them children.

The six deceased persons have been identified as Connor McKisick, 34; his wife Jessica McKisick; his stepdaughters, 14-year-old Natalie Kleemeier and 12-year-old Sofina Kleemeier; and his twin 3-year-old sons, whose names were not given. All six died of a single gunshot wound. Connor's wound is believed to have been self-inflicted. The other deaths are still under investigation, though the New York Post reported that there are no other persons of interest associated with this case. All six lived in the apartment together.

Hartland police chief Torin J. Misko told reporters that police also believe that the apartment fire had been started intentionally. Investigators discovered "evidence of an ignitable liquid" in an area of the apartment "where it normally would not be located," Misko said.

Multiple firearms were also recovered from the apartment.

"This is a tragic incident for the family of the deceased, for our first responders and for the Hartland community," Misko wrote in a statement. "The family has asked for privacy while they mourn the loss of their loved ones."

According to one report, Jessica had previously posted on Facebook that she and Connor were married last Christmas. She has no known criminal history, though Connor was convicted of battery and disorderly conduct in 2007.

The fire displaced the other three families who had been living in the same apartment building, and authorities have begun collecting gift cards and other donations to help them meet basic needs.

A GoFundMe page has also been established for each of the three families, as well as for Natalie and Sofina's father, Kyle Kleemeier, so that he can pay for funeral arrangements.

Hartland is located about 25 miles west of Milwaukee.


Mother kills her 3 children, self after husband commits suicide



Tragedy compounded tragedy compounded tragedy in Minnesota last week when a woman allegedly killed her three children and then herself after her husband killed himself earlier that same day.

At about 10:30 a.m. local time Friday morning, the Maplewood Police Department said police received a call from Molly Cheng, 23, who claimed that her husband, Yee Lee, 27, had shot himself. Authorities arranged for social workers to go to the home to help the family, but soon afterward, a relative called 911 to say that Cheng might harm herself or her children.

The Ramsey County sheriff's office then instigated a statewide manhunt for Cheng and the children, Quadrillion T. Lee, 4; Phoenix Lee, 5; and Estella Zoo Siab Lee, 3. Police were able to track Cheng's cell phone to Vadnais-Sucker Lake Park, where they found Cheng's abandoned car and several pairs of children's shoes.

Dive teams, fire crews, and cadaver dogs scoured the lake for Cheng and the children. They recovered the body of Quadrillion at about 7:30 p.m. that evening. Emergency medical professionals attempted to revive the boy, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The body of his brother, Phoenix, surfaced shortly after midnight. Authorities were able to recover the remains of Molly and her daughter, Estelle, between 10:40 and 11:00 a.m. the following morning.

“There is nothing more tragic than the loss of young children, all of which were apparently under the age of five,” Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told reporters on Friday.

"I've been in this 32 years and this is one of the most difficult [cases]," commander Eric Brandt added.

The medical examiner ruled the deaths of Yee Lee and Molly Cheng as suicides. While all three children died by drowning, the ME determined that the two youngest children had also been smothered.

Cheng, a tattoo artist, her husband, and their three children were among the 66,000 members of the Hmong community who live on the outskirts of St. Paul. Twenty years ago, the community formed the Hmong 18 Council of Minnesota after another Hmong mother killed her children, and many in the community are now devastated by this second instance.

Yee's sister, who refers to her brother as Kos, posted a heartbreaking message after she learned of her brother's suicide: "Forever goodbye my nicest brother. Why are you making me so mad and sad at the same moment? I’m so sorry that I’m 20 minutes late and cannot help you. I drive so fast to help you and to stop you but I still failed. I’m sorry that I failed you in this life and was late to help you. Only if I was faster then you will be alive.”

Mom asked her landlord to change the locks for fear of her estranged husband — they didn't, and days later she and her 2 kids were murdered, lawsuit alleges



A mother and two young children in Salem County, New Jersey, might still be alive today if only apartment operators had agreed to change their unit's locks as requested, according to the victims' family.

Relatives of Ruth Esther Reyes de Severino, 30, and her two children, Eurianny, 5, and Eury, 2, filed a lawsuit in court recently accusing operators at Penns Grove Apartments of failing to protect the young family from their estranged husband and father, NJ.com reported.

Eugene Severino, 54, had allegedly threatened to kill his estranged wife on multiple occasions, prompting her to separate from him and obtain a restraining order on Jan. 16, 2020, ousting him from the apartment they shared.

After he was removed from the apartment, Reyes de Severino "begged" apartment operators to change the door locks out of fear that he would return since he still had a key to the unit. But according to the lawsuit, that simple request was denied.

Not long after, on Feb. 5, Severino returned to the apartment, using his keys to enter, and allegedly stabbed his wife and children to death before hanging himself in a nearby park.

Mom, 2 kids killed after N.J. apartment owners didn\u2019t change her locks, lawsuit says http://nj-ne.ws/k0guQSY\u00a0pic.twitter.com/prWWnDySZC
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) 1637590083

"Ruth Reyes de Severino asked, nay, begged, Defendant Landlord Penns Grove Apartments LLC ... to change the locks on the door to her apartment such that her husband could not gain entry," the lawsuit states, according to NBC News.

It adds, "Despite Tenant's fear for her own safety and security, as well as the safety and security of her two small children ... Defendant Landlord denied Tenant's request to change the locks."

One of the family's lawyers, Samuel D. Jackson, said in the suit that Reyes de Severino had made at least five in-person requests for the locks to be changed to no avail.

The suit, filed last month in Salem County Superior Court, alleges wrongful death, negligence, breach of contract, and negligent hiring. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the family.

In it, lawyers also accuse the defendants — listed as Penns Grove Gardens, its operator, and Housing Management Resources — of failing to abide by a local ordinance passed in response to another killing at the apartment. That ordinance requires all complexes within the municipality to install exterior security cameras and lighting to improve safety for residents.

"Women and their children should not have to fear for their lives — or lose them — because their landlords and the parties they contract with fail to keep those women and children safe," Jackson said in a statement Tuesday.

"The defendants here didn't bother to follow a law that was passed to address their own bad behavior, and the predictable result was an even worse tragedy. We hope this lawsuit sends shockwaves through the New Jersey landlord community and makes landlords realize the health and safety of their tenants should trump all other considerations — especially profits," he added.

Representatives for the defendants in the case did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit from either NJ.com or NBC News.