Katrina Hudson

Katrina Hudson, a 22-year-old White woman, was looking forward to becoming a mother. She was six months pregnant with a baby girl she planned to name Alexis. That future was stolen on September 5, 2011, when she, her family, and her boyfriend were murdered in their rural home near Mungertown, a community a few miles west of Morgantown, West Virginia. The day of immense tragedy saw five lives, plus an unborn child, violently taken in what a state police captain would later call "one of the most heinous crimes I've ever witnessed."

The victims were found in a ramshackle house at the end of a deeply rutted dirt drive on Sugar Grove Road. They were Katrina; her mother, 50-year-old Karin Richardson; her stepfather, 49-year-old Charles Richardson III; her 17-year-old brother, Kevin Hudson; and her 30-year-old boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Robert "Bo" Raber. All five had been shot and killed with a high-powered rifle. Robert Raber was described as Katrina's fiancé in his obituary; he enjoyed hunting, riding 4-wheelers, and spending time with his son from a previous relationship. Charles Richardson III was remembered by his father as a "hard worker" who was employed by FedEx.

West Virginia State Police were asked to do a welfare check on the family around 6:30 p.m. on that Labor Day. A friend of the gunman had become concerned after he visited her in Pennsylvania and she contacted authorities. When troopers arrived at the home, they discovered a horrific scene. Two bodies were in the kitchen, one was in the living room, and after securing the house, they found two more in a bathroom. Investigators believe the murders happened between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.

The killer was identified as 22-year-old Shayne Riggleman of Morgantown. After the murders, Riggleman stole a vehicle from the home and drove about 20 miles to Fairchance, Pennsylvania, to meet a female friend. After leaving her residence around 5:30 p.m., he crashed into another car and ran down the elderly female driver as she got out to exchange information, seriously injuring her. He then fled south on Interstate 79, back into West Virginia. Near Amma, about 30 miles from Charleston, he stopped at an Exxon station and shot attendant Don Nichols, who was severely wounded but survived.

Riggleman’s violent spree crossed into a third state as he continued into Lewis County, Kentucky. There, a deputy attempted to pull him over for reckless driving. After a brief chase, Riggleman pulled over and a deputy found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Inside the Jeep, which had been taken from the Richardson home, authorities found a high-powered rifle, a second rifle, and a handgun.

Investigators searched Riggleman's apartment and social media, which revealed cryptic posts hinting at a troubled relationship. His motive was never definitively stated by police, but reports indicated he had previously dated the girlfriend of one of the victims, Kevin Hudson. Riggleman had a criminal history, having served 14 months in a youth correctional center for a 2008 armed robbery. His mother later stated that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking his medication at the time of the killings.

In the aftermath, the families and community were left to grieve an unimaginable loss. Karin Richardson's surviving son, Jacob Hudson, remembered his mother as "an amazing person, loving, caring to anyone who would come by. She was a mother to anyone." Family in Connecticut, where Karin and her children had previously lived, organized a balloon release at the Bethlehem Fairgrounds. The case is considered solved, as the primary and sole suspect, Shayne Riggleman, died by suicide on the day of the murders in September 2011.