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Posted on 06/12/2002 11:17:35 AM PDT by Kennesaw
Divorce Trouble Among Details Emerging About Man Who Shot Two Monks, Self at Abbey
CONCEPTION, Mo. (AP) - The man who killed two monks and wounded two others at a Roman Catholic abbey before killing himself had been upset with the church over his divorce, The Associated Press learned Wednesday. Investigators had been struggling to find information about 71-year-old Lloyd Robert Jeffress as they searched for a motive in his attack on Conception Abbey, a rural monastery in northwest Missouri.
Jeffress' first victim, Brother Damian Larson, pleaded for his life before Jeffress shot him, Abbot Gregory Polan said Wednesday.
"He said 'No, no,' and (Jeffress) just plugged him ... with a (rifle)," Polan said.
Jeffress' daughter and brother said he had been upset at the way he was treated by the church after his divorce, a source close to the investigation told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. A church official said the marriage ended in an annulment.
The source did not know when Jeffress and his wife, Della Steward of Richmond, were married or divorced and could not elaborate on how the church allegedly mistreated Jeffress.
Steward had not cooperated with investigators, Sheriff Ben Espey said Wednesday.
The abbey, about 90 miles north of Kansas City, reopened to visitors Wednesday. On Tuesday, bells at its basilica tolled at 8:40 a.m. - exactly 24 hours after the bloodshed began. The bells sounded once for each year that the two slain monks had been there. The Rev. Philip Schuster spent 51 of his 85 years at the abbey. Larson, 64, had been there 32 years.
Detectives initially had pulled together few details about the gunman - a devout Roman Catholic in his youth, a former soldier and postal worker, a loner estranged from his family.
A spokeswoman for the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese confirmed that Jeffress and Steward were granted an annulment in 1979. Both participated in the annulment process, but details about the their relationship are kept private.
"We were shocked," diocese spokeswoman Rebecca Summers said.
The Rev. C. Michael Coleman, the judicial vicar who oversees the marriage tribunal for the diocese, declined to comment.
Abbey officials said they had found nothing in their guest, seminary and employment records to link Jeffress to Conception Abbey. Investigators said they had no evidence connecting the shootings to the sex abuse scandal rocking the church.
Relatives of Jeffress told investigators he was a devout Catholic in his teens, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Sheldon Lyon.
Jeffress recently attended services at a Methodist church in Kearney, where he lived.
The Rev. Brad Reed, pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Kearney, said Jeffress was there last Sunday. "He shook my hand and responded with a smile," Reed said. "He was a quiet gentleman who responded with a word or two at most."
Jeffress was born in Kansas City, Kan., and worked for a steel company and later the Postal Service, Lyon said.
Neighbors said Jeffress kept to himself and never had visitors.
Jeffress did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and had no known criminal past, Lyon said. Investigators searching his apartment found anti-depression medication, though it was not clear whether Jeffress had been taking it.
Two phone numbers were written on a piece of paper found on Jeffress' body - one for his brother, the other for his apartment manager, Lyon said. He had not contacted his daughter or brother, both living in Missouri, for years, investigators said.
Jeffress arrived at the abbey about 8:35 a.m. Monday and walked into the basilica, pulling out two weapons from boxes he had carried in.
He then went into the monastery in an adjacent building and shot Larson. Two other monks were shot after they peeked out of an office to see what had happened.
Jeffress then returned to the basilica where he shot Schuster twice, at least once in the head.
The injured monks remained hospitalized Wednesday and were expected to recover.
AP-ES-06-12-02 1309EDT
Detectives initially had pulled together few details about the gunman - a devout Roman Catholic in his youth, a former soldier and postal worker, a loner estranged from his family.Why am I not surprised?
There is a man in our town who was an alcoholic and mentally abused his wife and 4 kids. When she divorced him, he blamed the court system for not letting him be with his kids, though I believe his kids had made the decision not to be with him. He still sits downtown in a lawn chair at the center of town hoping his ex wife will drive by and see thim there. When he was able to drive, he used to park his car on Main St. covered with a sign railing against the court system. He just never accepted the fact that it was HE who caused the breakup of his family, not the courts. Thankfully he was never violent against his ex-wife.
Maybe this guy in MO had a similar problem. Too bad his ex wife isn't talking with the police and helping to shed some light on the situation. It seems like it would help those who have been left behind in their grief to know what the killer's motives were. It won't bring those men back, but it may help the survivors make some sense of their deaths.
It's just an urban legend though. Postal workers really are not more likely to go... postal.
Honest.
The Church might have granted his wife an annulment, although he wished to continue the marriage. One of the Kennedys managed to dump his wife that way.
The Church might have refused to let him receive communion if he remarried after a divorce without getting an annulment. This article doesn't really suggest what his grudge was about, or why he would go off and shoot a couple of monks who doubtfully ever saw or heard of him before, and who presumably had no connection to his divorce or mistreatment whatever.
It definitely sounds as if he went postal.
Uh, oh....
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