Elizabeth Williams was a 41-year-old woman from Calvert City, Kentucky, who worked as the front desk manager at the Best Western in Paducah and was studying for a nursing degree. She is remembered by family as a devoted mother to her daughter, Makayla, and as a beloved daughter and friend.

On the morning of Saturday, February 11, 2023, a hotel guest, later identified as 55-year-old Robert Pannell from Palm Coast, Florida, began a violent rampage. After assaulting two people in the parking lot over a cigarette lighter, Pannell entered the Best Western on John Puryear Drive with a handgun. He encountered Williams in a hallway and shot her multiple times in the head and body, then fired indiscriminately before discarding the handgun in the lobby.

Multiple 911 calls reported an active shooter. A McCracken County Sheriff’s deputy arrived in under two minutes; Williams was found with grave injuries and was taken to Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital, where she later died. Pannell was detained in the parking lot and initially charged with assault, wanton endangerment, and resisting arrest; those charges were later upgraded to first-degree murder. Does anyone have information about Elizabeth’s life in Paducah or the hours before the attack that could help investigators?