(Ripley, TN) – A Lauderdale County woman is accused of shooting her husband in the back with a shotgun while he was lying down in their bedroom. The deadly shooting happened at a home outside of Ripley at 2060 Durhamville Road.
Neighbors tells News Channel 3 they are in disbelief that Donna Neal,48, is accused of killing her husband. They say they would see the couple all the time in the yard holding hands, and they can’t imagine why Donna would want her husband dead.
“They’re very close. We’ve never heard an argument never a bad word from any of them over there,” Ramona Hendrix said.
She says that’s why it’s so hard to believe that Donna Neal would murder him.
“We’d have to see a video of her doing it because I just can’t believe she would do that,” she said.
Caution tape still surrounds the home where investigators say Donna Neal shot her husband Randy just before midnight Tuesday.
Sheriffs deputies say he was lying on the bed when Donna Neal shot him in the back at close range with a shotgun.
They say she then hid the shotgun underneath a two-wheel trailer in their back yard.
“The only way I would truly believe it is if she told me herself,” Stacy Hendrix said.
According to her arrest warrant, Neal “did admit to firing the shotgun and shooting Randy Neal.”
“We really love these people and I just can’t believe this has happened,” Ramona Hendrix said.
Investigators are not releasing a motive in the killing, and now the Hendrix’s who have known the family for more than twenty years, can only wonder why this mother of two and wife would allegedly do this.
“If they had problems they knew how to hide their problems because we’ve never experienced anything with them,” she said.
Neal remains at the Lauderdale County jail charged with first degree murder. Bond will be set tomorrow.
This crime has similarities to another high profile murder case in Tennessee that happened back in 2006.
Mary Winkler, of Selmer, was convicted of shooting her husband, a pastor, also with a shotgun in the back while he was lying on the bed. She told the jury she was abused by her husband.
A jury found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter.She was sentenced to 210 days and spent almost 60 days in a mental health facility.
