Laura Lynn Smith Moorer, 41, was shot to death on the front lawn of her home in Jackson, Alabama, in the early morning hours of August 12, 1986. She had recently separated from her husband, Vernon Franklin Moorer, amid a history of an abusive marriage marked by his alcohol dependency and violence. Vernon Moorer drove to the house while their two daughters, Shelby and Allison, were asleep, shot Laura, and then turned the gun on himself, dying at the scene; no arrest was made.

The killing was ruled a murder-suicide that left the daughters orphaned and had lasting consequences for the family. One of the daughters, Allison Moorer, later addressed the impact in her memoir Blood.