Triple Homicide Caught on 911 Tape

An eight minute tape from a 911 call detailed how Freda Elliot, her daughter Rachel and son Seth were killed by Freda's ex-husband, Parker Ray Elliot.

One of the saddest parts of the whole story, to me, is that Freda Elliott had done everything right. Once she realized her husband was never going to stop hitting her, she'd made a plan and left him. She took her children and went to a safe place. She worked with a domestic violence shelter to figure out her options. She divorced him. She got a legal order of protection to keep him away from her.

Yet still, her children were trained to run and get the baseball bat if he knocked on the door. Tragically, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol with 40 rounds of bullets trumps a baseball bat every time.

The lesson I take away from this would be that all 3 of the victims, (Rachel 18 and Seth 15 and their mother) should have been armed with something a bit more powerful than a baseball bat. At least one of them may have survived. No guarantee of course - there are no guarantees in this life. But 2 shotguns and a revolver would probably trump one handgun in most situations.

Calling for help is a good thing - and that is recommended. But, as I have said before, in the minutes you have when confronted by a violent attacker, you must be prepared to rely on your own means of self-defense.