On September 9, 2014, 49-year-old Dick Mashek was shot and killed inside his mobile home on Hillview Drive in Box Elder, South Dakota. Security cameras Mashek had installed captured hours of a violent confrontation between him and his then 24-year-old girlfriend, Kelly Ann Croyle. Video shows Mashek repeatedly abusing and threatening Croyle, at one point assaulting her with a battle axe and several times pointing a loaded pistol at her head.

The footage records Mashek handing the gun to Croyle and urging her to shoot him. After an eleven-second pause, Croyle fired a single shot. She was later seen on video smoking, making a phone call, disabling a camera and a computer, and leaving the home with the gun and some money. Croyle was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and spent ten months in Pennington County Jail.

Forensic review of the video, including a psychiatrist’s assessment that Mashek had brutalized and terrorized Croyle and left her no alternative, led prosecutors and defense to conclude Croyle acted in self-defense. The charge was dropped and she was released.

Does anyone have information about Mashek’s life in Box Elder or recall the circumstances around that night?