On the evening of January 30, 2025, 76-year-old Larry D. Fox was shot and killed on his family farm in Norman, Indiana. Investigators say the confrontation grew out of family tension over a planned reduction in the son’s share of a 700-acre inheritance after Larry reportedly criticized his son’s work ethic.

Police arrested Larry’s son, 28-year-old Robert Walter Dean Fox, and charged him with murder. Phone records show three calls between father and son shortly before the fatal meeting. A witness who was at the barn reported hearing a calm conversation, then a flash and a gunshot, after which Larry fell toward his son. The witness said Robert later told him it was finally over, and that Robert shot himself in the left arm to stage an attack when the witness refused to shoot him.

Physical evidence contradicted Robert’s initial claim of being fired on from a distance. The autopsy found Larry had been shot at close range with a shotgun; investigators recovered a 12-gauge shotgun tied to Robert and say the same gun had been fired at a trail camera on the property on an earlier date. Robert was arrested April 17, 2025, and is held without bond awaiting trial in October 2025. Does anyone have information about the family, the farm, or the events that night?