Local families who could use your prayers this Thanksgiving week

This is just awful:

GREENSBORO, N.C. β€” A woman who killed her son and her niece β€” and shot her ex-boyfriend, another son, a nephew and a teen girl before killing herself β€” was bitter over an affair with the married man that ended with restraining orders filed, authorities said Monday.

Mary Ann Holder, 36, left behind two notes taking responsibility for the shootings Sunday morning and apologizing for the pain she caused, Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said.

What the note didn’t explain was why Holder decided to shoot five people under the age of 18 in the head along with the man she had an affair with.

“We may never know exactly what her thoughts were and why,” Barnes said.

The shootings in three different locations south of Greensboro left Holder’s 17-year-old son dead on Sunday. An 8-year-old niece died Monday.

Her 14-year-old son, 17-year-old nephew, and the older son’s 15-year-old girlfriend were all in critical condition Monday morning. All were shot in the head.

Holder’s ex-boyfriend, 40-year-old Randall Lamb, was in stable condition with a shoulder wound, Barnes said.

[…]

The tragedy began to unfold shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday when Holder met Lamb in a parking lot. They spoke briefly before Holder shot him in the shoulder, investigators said.

Lamb called his wife and told her what happened, prompting deputies to begin looking for Holder. Officers were stationed outside her home, but a deputy spotted her car driving down the street about an hour later. The deputy said he saw a puff of smoke in the car and found Holder dead and her 14-year-old son, Zachary Smith, shot in the head, Barnes said.

The officers then went into Holder’s home and found Holder’s son, 17-year-old Robert Dylan Smith, dead. Smith’s girlfriend, Makayla Woods was injured along with Holder’s niece, Hannaleigh Suttles, and her nephew, Richard Suttles.

Holder had custody of her nephew and niece after their mother died last spring, NBC affiliate WXII12 reported Barnes as saying.

I cannot imagine the mindset of someone who would want to murder anyone, much less someone who would want to murder children before killing themselves. Please keep the survivors of this tragedy in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the family and friends of those who didn’t make it. A lot of families are going to be suffering from an unbearable amount of grief this holiday season. May God’s comforting hand rest upon their shoulders always, but especially right now in their time of great need.

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