Husband, Wife Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide

A man and a woman were dead of gunshot wounds, but a 2-month-old girl was found unhurt when members of a sheriff’s special weapons team smashed their way into a barricaded home in the Firestone area late Thursday night.

A sheriff’s spokesman said Friday that the two deaths were an apparent murder-suicide, believed to be the result of a disagreement over custody of the infant, who had been reported missing earlier in the day by her mother.

Pernella Turpin, 49, and a niece, Tanya Davis, 18, said they escaped from the house in the 8600 block of Bandera Street when Billy Ray Harold, 24, entered with a pistol in his hand at about 8:30 p.m.

Davis ran to a nearby county fire station for help, but neighbors had already called deputies.

As deputies arrived, several gunshots and a woman’s scream were heard, the sheriff’s spokesman said. Members of the special weapons team surrounded the house and tried to telephone those inside. However, no one answered, and shortly after 11 p.m., the order to enter the house was given.

Deputies found the bodies of Harold and the child’s mother, Veronica Turpin, 20, in a bedroom.

Investigators said Harold evidently shot the woman to death and then took his own life.

The infant, Leslie Harold, was unharmed. She was placed in the custody of her great-grandmother, Pernella Turpin, deputies said.

Relatives said the two had been arguing over custody and other matters concerning the child.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Lester Boal said that shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, Veronica Turpin had come to the Firestone Sheriff’s Station to complain that Harold had come to her home despite a court order for him to stay away. After filing a complaint, Turpin returned home and found her daughter missing. Deputies then took a new complaint from her.