On the morning of May 14, 2019, eight-year-old Mason Ross Hanahan was killed during a home invasion in Lexington, South Carolina. Mason was staying at his father’s Cedar Vale Drive residence after baseball practice and had fallen asleep on the living room couch when a masked intruder kicked in a back door just after midnight. The intruder was there to rob the home for cash and several pounds of marijuana. A gunfight broke out between the intruder and Mason’s father, Austin Hanahan. Both Austin and Mason were shot; Mason suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head that an autopsy attributed to the intruder’s weapon, while his father was wounded in the stomach.

Investigators concluded the burglary had been staged by an acquaintance of Austin’s, 25-year-old Linda Monette, who was in the house that night and whose statements to police were inconsistent. Authorities say Monette helped plan the robbery and intended to pose as a victim by having a gun held to her head. Reynerio Rafael Romero Jr. was identified as a co-conspirator. In September 2021 a jury convicted Monette of murder, criminal conspiracy, first-degree burglary, and attempted armed robbery; she received a forty-year sentence with no parole eligibility. The masked gunman who fired the shot that killed Mason has not been publicly identified.

If anyone has information that could identify the masked shooter, law enforcement seeks tips that could bring that person to justice.