On the evening of Sunday, April 30, 2023, 58-year-old Gail Gildemeister was shot and killed inside the family’s RV trailer near Preston, Idaho after a domestic dispute with her husband, Douglas James Gildemeister. Hours earlier Gail had visited her daughter in Utah and talked about her medical coding studies and the possibility of divorcing Douglas.

The next day Douglas, then 55, contacted a witness to care for his dog, later told that witness he had shot Gail, and asked to speak with law enforcement. He told a Franklin County deputy that Gail had pulled a gun on him and that he shot her in self-defense, and he waited about 12 hours before reporting her death. Investigators found Gail’s body in the trailer and said the body position and other forensic evidence did not support the self-defense account; a gunshot residue test on Douglas was presumptively positive. Douglas was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and failure to notify law enforcement; a deadly-weapon enhancement was filed.

At sentencing Gail’s family wore purple in a stand against domestic violence. If anyone knew Gail, her routines, or the couple’s situation around late April 2023, please share what you can.