On the morning of January 20, 2014, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of shots fired in the 5200 block of Carol Drive in Sun Valley, Nevada. Deputies found 40-year-old Candice Elizabeth Weakland outside a residence with a gunshot wound; she was pronounced dead at the scene. Weakland was a White/Caucasian woman and a mother of four.

At the residence’s entrance deputies detained a 50-year-old man identified as John Richard Harding. After detectives’ initial investigation Harding was arrested on an open murder charge and booked into the Washoe County Detention Facility, held without bail. The Sheriff’s Office appealed to the public for any information about the circumstances or motive in the shooting.