One day after three women were shot and killed in a Powell apartment complex, the victims' relatives are trying to make sense of what they say were senseless murders.
"I can't even begin to explain. I don't understand why he did it," said Tara Snellings, mother of 24-year-old victim Amber Snellings.
Tuesday a large group of family and friends gathered outside the Lake City apartment where Amber lived with her mother, Tara. Tara said Monday seemed very normal for her fun-loving daughter.
"She [Amber] was here yesterday and we were laughing and cutting up. Nothing out of the ordinary," said Snellings. "She said she was going down Clinton Highway to visit some friends."
Those friends were 39-year-old twin sisters Christina Moore and Bridgette White-Stagnolia. Moore and Stagnolia used to live in the apartment "two doors down" from Snellings in Lake City.
"They lived there for a couple of months," said Snellings. "They always seemed like nice girls."
Investigators with the Knox County Sheriff's Office say all three victims were shot in the head and killed by Christina's 51-year-old husband, Paul Clifford Moore, Jr. Warrants from KCSO indicate Moore admitted to shooting his wife but claims he does not remember shooting the other two victims. Moore faces three counts of first-degree murder.
"The detective told us she [Amber] just happened to be at the wrong place at the
wrong time," said Sue White, Snellings' grandmother. "I think he [Moore] was either divorced or getting a divorce, but he went back and got his gun and shot his wife first, then
her sister, and then my granddaughter."
White said the families are waiting for autopsies to be completed before making funeral arrangements.
"She [Amber] had great dreams and hopes and always made the best of a bad situation," said White. "She wanted to be a veterinarian. She was always talking about the future. Just the other day she was looking forward, already talking about spending Christmas and Thanksgiving with her family."
"Once again, I just don't understand why this man [Moore] done this," said Tara Snellings. "I just hope that justice will be served for what he did to my daughter."