"Gentle Person" Kills Wife, Self

"CLENDENIN, WV - An elderly couple died Monday in an apparent murder-suicide in Clendenin.

"Metro 911 emergency dispatchers got a call about a shooting on Morris Creek Road just before 9 a.m. Clendenin police and Kanawha County sheriff's deputies responded to the call.

"Sgt. John Jarman III of the Clendenin Police Department confirmed that a man and a woman were found dead at the home. Police were withholding the names of the victims until relatives could be notified, but neighbors identified the couple as Glen and Kitty Sherman.

"Todd and Diana Jackson, who live next door to the trim white and brown house where the shooting occurred, said they didn't think anything was seriously wrong at the home.

"Though the Jacksons have lived there only since June, they said Glen Sherman seemed friendly and helpful. Apparently in his 70s, he still mowed his own grass on the steep hillside where he lived.

"`This is all surreal,` said Todd Jackson. `That wasn't Glen. He was a gentle person.`

"Recently, Jackson said, Sherman asked if he would be interested in buying the white house on the hill. Sherman told him he had to move.

"Jackson said his son was interested in the home. An appraiser was at the house on Thursday.

"But Jackson said Sherman didn't seem happy about moving out of the house where he'd lived since 1968. `It seemed like he was being forced into it,` he said.

"`This just doesn't make sense,` Jackson said from his porch, in plain view of the white house surrounded by a single strand of yellow police tape. `For him to kill his wife and then kill himself doesn't make any sense.`"

From The Charleston Gazette...