Janette Bivens, 71, was shot and killed at her Quitman, Arkansas home on Monday afternoon, January 2, 2017. Deputies from the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office found Mrs. Bivens in the front yard with a fatal gunshot wound; her 73-year-old husband was also shot in the arm and survived. Their son, 47-year-old Douglas Bivens, was at the scene and taken into custody; a motive was not immediately released.

Born in Faulkner County on December 31, 1945, Janette Bivens was a lifetime member of New Home Missionary Baptist Church and served for 28 years as a school bus driver and cafeteria director at Guy Perkins School. She is remembered as a devoted wife of 53 years, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who enjoyed painting, hunting, fishing and camping.

Did anyone in the Quitman area know the Bivens family or have information about what happened that afternoon?