On June 28, 2018, 71-year-old Jim Thornton was fatally shot in the head and torso at his trailer home on Waller Road in Nathalie, Virginia. Family members at the scene say his 36-year-old daughter, Shelley Elizabeth Thornton, shot him with a .38 caliber revolver, and they wrestled the gun away as she then attacked them with a shovel and smashed a vehicle windshield before attempting to barricade herself inside the home.

Sheriff’s deputies found Shelley about 300 yards from the trailer; she admitted to killing her father but made delusional claims that the man she shot was an imposter, a twin, or a robot. A psychiatric evaluation diagnosed schizophrenia and concluded she could not comprehend the gravity of her actions. In January 2019 a Halifax Circuit Judge accepted a not guilty by reason of insanity plea to second-degree murder and felonious use of a firearm, and Shelley Thornton was committed to a psychiatric institution indefinitely.

Did anyone in the Nathalie area know of escalating symptoms or recent behavior that could shed light on what happened that night?