Sarah Simms, 46, was shot in her Independence, Missouri, home in the early morning hours of November 18, 2018, and later died at a local hospital. Police found her on the kitchen floor, unconscious but breathing, with a gunshot wound to the head; another man in the home was also shot and wounded.

Investigators identified 27-year-old Michael T. Dumas of Pleasant Hill as the suspect. Witnesses reported hearing an argument between Dumas and Simms in her bedroom hours before the shooting, then saw Dumas in the kitchen holding a large butane torch and a silver-barreled, sawed-off shotgun. Both Simms and a witness were said to have raised their hands and pleaded with him not to shoot. Spent shells at the scene matched shells found in a box in Dumas’s vehicle parked behind the house.

Dumas was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. A jury later convicted him of second-degree murder, third-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action, and a judge sentenced him to a total of 34 years in prison. Did anyone who knew Sarah or who was in that neighborhood that night see something that could add detail to what happened?