Ponder murder-suicide survivor flies to family after her children's memorial
The sole survivor of a suspected murder-suicide in this small North Texas town is out of the hospital and now visiting family in Virginia, she said in a Facebook post Friday morning.
Amanda Simpson, 29, said she expected to be "home" by 1:30 p.m. "There will be a memorial ... also in Virginia for my children for our family to say their final goodbyes," she said in the post.
Simpson was critically wounded in a shooting the morning of May 16 in which police said her ex-husband, Justin Painter, 39, of Fort Worth, killed her boyfriend and her three young children before killing himself.
On Thursday evening, a memorial service was held to remember the children — Odin, 8, Caydence, 6, and Drake, 4, at the The Nest at Ruth Farms, a white, picturesque barn-like building in Ponder that often hosts weddings.
Attempts to contact family members and friends since the shooting earlier this month have been unsuccessful. The only public comments that have been made by anyone in the family came from Amanda Simpson at a vigil at Parkview Elementary School in Fort Worth on Sunday and on her Facebook page from her hospital bed hours after the shooting.
Little has been disclosed about the family's circumstances. People who were approached outside Painter's residence in north Fort Worth last week declined to comment.
Simpson's Facebook posts and her comments at the vigil and the children's obituary posted on a Denton funeral home website give a glimpse into their young lives.
Odin was a Boy Scout who was passionate about the outdoors, loved drawing, Legos and Pokemon, and as the oldest looked out for his younger siblings, the obituary says. His sister Caydence enjoyed being a kindergartner and loved dancing, reading and writing. Drake, the youngest, liked fishing, coloring and cheese pizza and was nicknamed "Bear" by his mother because he loved to cuddle with her, according to the obituary.
Simpson said in a Facebook Live video post just hours after the shooting that Painter was trying to reunite with her and was angry when she wouldn't agree.
She later removed that Facebook Live post and several others.
On Sunday, she posted photos of her boyfriend, Seth Richardson, 29, of South Carolina, and her children.
"As much as I am enjoying spending time with everyone, I'm aching inside for my babies and for Seth," she wrote.
"My best friend I swear never will leave me, and my babies are just my heart."
Denton County sheriff's deputies are finishing up the paperwork on their investigation into the shooting, Capt. Orlando Hinojosa said Friday.
He said he expects the case to be closed within a few weeks.
"Even though nobody's going to trial because the shooter, the suspect, killed himself, you still act as though it's going to trial," Hinojosa said. "You don't cut corners."
This story was originally published May 25, 2018 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Ponder murder-suicide survivor flies to family after her children's memorial."