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By Josh Hester
SULLIVAN—What started as a confrontation between a husband and his estranged wife turned out leaving three children without parents after an apparent murder suicide in Sullivan on Monday evening.
Police say that around 6:30 p.m. Harry Lackey, 58, of Leasburg, was on a mission to kill his estranged wife and her boyfriend, Sara Lackey, 27, and boyfriend Clinton Buckley. After dropping his children off at a relative’s house in St. Clair, he entered Buckley’s Sullivan apartment at 381 Maple Street and opened fire.
Buckley narrowly escaped, ducking under the 12-gauge blast from six-feet away. Police said that he did have a burn on his face from the muzzle blast and after escaping with his life, heard the second shot that took his live-in girlfriend’s life.
After slaying his wife, Lackey fled the scene in his vehicle to Modern Garage, before shooting himself in the head. Police received a phone call to respond to that location at 6:32 p.m.
Lt. David Roche, a detective with the Sullivan Police Department, said on Tuesday that the killing was absolutely premeditated.
“He had told family members and friends what he was en route to do,” Roche said, “but nobody called us.”
Roche said the reason that no one contacted the department was that Lackey had made comments to people before about what he was going to do and who he was going to kill.
Harry and Sara Lackey had been separated for some time, and according to reports, the couples’ three children spent most of their time living with their father. After initially being reported missing, the children were located at the residence in St. Clair.
The children were later placed with relatives.
Although an official word has not come forth from the investigation it seems that the murder was fueled by a personal vendetta.
This wasn’t the first confrontation between the couple as they had filed motions back and forth in the court system. It was, however, the first time that the police had responded, according to Roche.
“There are those people out there that we watch and know where they are,” Roche said. “They weren’t in that group. We had no idea that they were even here until Monday.”
According to Missouri Case.net, two motions had been filed between the couple in the Crawford County court system, one in November of 2006 and the second just one month later. The first entry was a petition for a child protection order, which was denied by Judge John Brackman.
On December 5, 2006, Harry Lackey filed a complaint of adult abuse, asking for a protection order. Judge Kent Howald ruled that the court found “no immediate and present danger of abuse as defined by law,” and subsequently dismissed the case.
Just 10 days later, Sara Lackey filed a motion in Franklin County courts requesting an order of protection, which was issued the same day. Three days later, she asked that the order be dismissed.
“I think it is important that people understand this,” Roche said.
Roche did say that the investigation was coming to a close, noting that credible witnesses were at both locations. He further revealed that a family was looking at a car at Modern Garage, just one row over from where Lackey took his life.
“They made eye contact with him, then heard a gun shot before seeing his body and the gun falling to the ground,” he said.
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