Net chat provokes murder, suicide

A Mooreland man fatally shot his wife and then himself after he caught her chatting with another man over the Internet, Henry County authorities said Monday. Curtis H. Downs, 28, and his 25-year-old wife, Daleleen, were found dead in their home about 10:45 p.m. Sunday. Both had apparently died of shotgun blasts in the head. Police said Mrs. Downs had also been shot in the chest. Moments before police had arrived, Curtis Downs had called emergency dispatchers and reported that he had just shot his wife and planned to kill himself. In the background, dispatchers could hear Mrs. Downs, apparently already wounded, screaming for her life, according to 911 tapes. "Please don`t!" a woman could be heard shouting on the tape. "Please don`t!" Seconds later, dispatchers heard a gunshot and the line went dead. Police believe that Curtis Downs shot his wife a second time, then killed himself after hanging up the phone. The couple lived with Mr. Downs`s father, Curtis F. Downs, at 4309 N. Henry County Road 550-E. Quarrel over chatting Investigators said Downs`s father left the home Sunday evening after the couple began arguing over Mrs. Down`s Internet activity. The elder Downs took two children in the house - the couple`s 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old niece - with him to a neighbor`s home, where he called police. Authorities said the elder Downs reported there was a gun in the house and that his son was being violent. Neighbor Steve Reynolds was in his garage when the elder Curtis drove up and asked him to call 911. "He made a hard decision to let his son go and get his grandkids out of there," Reynolds said of the elder Downs. "He was very motivated to get them out of the area and leave." When police arrived at the home, they found Mrs. Downs fatally shot in the living room and Curtis Downs in the kitchen with a shotgun near his body. "This wasn`t the first time we had been out there," Henry County Sheriff Kim Cronk said. "In fact, we have been out there a lot." History of trouble Over the past three years, members of Curtis H. Downs`s family - including his father, children, sister, wife and mother - had requested or been targets of protective orders filed by other relatives. Most recently, on Sept. 24, Curtis H. Downs filed a protective order against his wife, then living in a New Castle apartment. Weeks later the order was dismissed at Mr. Downs`s request. The couple then moved in together at the Mooreland home, where Curtis had grown up. Both Mr. and Mrs. Downs had been arrested for domestic battery. In March, Mrs. Downs was jailed after she allegedly ran over her husband with the couple`s car. In May 2000, Mr. Downs - who has been arrested nine times - was jailed after he allegedly beat his wife with a tool. According to police records, since January 1994, Mr. Downs had been involved in 15 family fights in which police were called. Most of those incidents involved a weapon. He was also the target of protective orders filed by his wife, father, mother and sister. In each case, the protective order was eventually dismissed at the family member`s request. Anger problems Downs`s mother, Cynthia, told The Star Press on Monday that she always believed her son had an anger-control problem and should have been on medication that he couldn`t afford. Cynthia Downs, who divorced her husband three years ago, said she saw her son about four hours before the shooting. He had called wanting to borrow some noodles. She met him down the road from his house so she wouldn`t have to see her ex-husband. They parked their cars next to each other along a dark county road. "He was in a good mood," Cynthia Downs said. "But anything could set him off. I knew he was angry and I knew he was capable of hurting someone, but I never thought he would use a gun to kill someone." Cynthia Downs said that her daughter-in-law frequently chatted with men on the Internet, causing the couple to get into numerous fights. The couple - who were legally disabled and drawing Social Security - didn`t work and all three of their children were legally in the custody of other family members. Cynthia Downs is the legal guardian of their 8-year-old daughter who was visiting her parents shortly before the shootings occurred. The mother said she felt that couple`s problems began when they married while still in their teens. He was 18 and she was 15.