Posted on 08/27/2002 5:47:49 AM PDT by CholeraJoe
Augusta kids killed
By CAROLYNN BRIGHT, IR Staff Writer - 08/27/02
Swanson faces 2 counts of murder.
A 46-year-old Augusta mother allegedly shot and killed two of her four children as they slept in their beds at the family ranch about 15 miles southwest of Augusta early Monday.
Jeanette Swanson faces two counts of deliberate homicide in connection with the shootings and is being held in the Lewis and Clark County Jail without bond.
Swanson was placed on suicide watch at the jail Monday afternoon while the bodies of her children a 10-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were brought to the State Crime Lab in Missoula, where an autopsy will be conducted, said Undersheriff Cheryl Liedle.
According to Liedle, emergency responders flocked to the Swanson Ranch just before 6 a.m. after Swanson called 911, reporting that she had shot her two children.
Swansons other two children boys, ages 16 and 20 were in the house at the time of the killing, but were unharmed in the incident.
Swansons husband, Gene, was sleeping in a camp trailer outside the residence when the shootings occurred, Liedle said.
According to reports, Swanson was waiting at the door of the residence when emergency crews arrived.
Her children were located in their beds inside both were dead at the scene, Liedle said.
Liedle said a firearm believed to have been used in the shootings was recovered at the family home, but officials will await the results of the autopsies to determine whether it was, in fact, the murder weapon.
Court documents indicate that Swansons 20-year-old son reported to authorities that his mother had a .38 Smith and Wesson gun in her possession when she placed the 911 call, but Liedle would not confirm whether that was the same make of gun seized at the scene.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Sam McCormack said Monday morning that a motive for the killings was sketchy.
However, he said that Swanson and her husband had argued last week about Swansons decision to enroll the two children in school in Augusta Gene Swanson wanted his wife to continue to home school the kids on the ranch while she wanted them to attend public school.
The children attended their first classes at school in Augusta last week.
Third prize. Stormhands won with the suggestion that she should have shot the husband.
This woman was PC all the way, right down to a 'politially correct' firearm. The husband was taking the moral high ground in their childrens' education and she wanted no part of it. Feminazism has left its mark.
A two bedroom shack in Montana will cost you 300 grand, but it's on 600 acres.
We don't suck. We just are better at evaluating what teachers are worth (although we still are a little on the high side).
Sounds good to me
Looks that way to me, too. Very confusing, unless they were arguing about it, and that's why he was sleeping elsewhere...? And why just the two children - why not the other two? Sounds like an argument between two parents, and one decided to take revenge on the other. What better way to get revenge than by taking away something he cherished most? Another sad story.
btw, for anyone interested-- http://www.nea.org/edstats/images/02rankings.pdf contains NEA 2001 Statistics and 2002 Estimates (includes salaries by state)
Now that is a bunch of crap. NOT EVERYONE should homeschool their kids, this is proof of that if nothing else. the woman was wacky, she clearly was not equipped to provide her children the best education. if you have a NUTTY parent, or one that lacks sufficient patience, or one that is just NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH, they are not the best educator of their child.
Only if my mother were in the news for sexual molestation.
Ya think? You mean that most people don't respond to not getting their own way (or getting their own way but having to argue with their husbands over it) by shooting their kids?
What planet was I raised on?
;)
Shalom.
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