GREENSBORO -- Family and friends turned out Thursday to remember the victims of a deadly shooting spree that killed five children. The victims ranged in age from 17 to just 8 years old.
Hundreds packed into the Pleasant Garden Baptist Church near Greensboro to pay their respects.
Most of the children being remembered were related to Mary Ann Holder, the woman suspected in the shooting. Investigators say Holder killed herself after shooting her 8-year-old niece Hannaleigh Suttles, her nephew, 17-year-old Richard Suttles as well as her two sons: 17-year-old Robert Smith and 14-year-old Zachary Smith.
Fifteen-year old Makaylah Woods was at their home visiting at the time of the shooting.
It's a shocking case that's sparked an outpouring of grief and anger.
Police say an extra-marital affair gone bad may have motivated the shooting spree.
Holder was involved with a married man and had shot him in the shoulder the day before the murder-suicide.
Now, friends and family are trying to make sense of the tragedy.
"It's just heartbreaking that a mom can come to that point where she feel like there's no other options," said family friend Amy Turner.
Mourners packed into a Baptist church in their hometown near Greensboro for a collective funeral for the five children between 8 and 17 gunned down in a shooting rampage by Mary Ann Holder, 36. Officers say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son. Holder then killed herself.
Four of the children survived for days with what Sheriff BJ Barnes said were bullet wounds to the head. Holder left two notes apologizing for the pain she'd caused, Barnes said.
Holder's mother Frances said the family was praying at least one of the children would survive to describe what happened. Frances Holder said she can't believe her daughter was responsible for the mass killings because she cared deeply for her children.
"People are calling my daughter a deadbeat mother, she was a no-good mother," Frances Holder said Thursday outside the church where mourners visited with the family. "She was very close to her children. I don't know what happened. I have no answers. I'm waiting for answers, just like everyone else."
Holder is accused of killing her two sons: Robert Dylan Smith, 17, and Zachary Smith, 14. Barnes said she also killed the niece and nephew she took into her home when her sister died: Richard Brian Suttles, 17, and Hannaleigh Suttles, 8. She also mortally wounded Makayla Leigh Woods, Robert's 15-year-old girlfriend.
Mary Ann Holder had been having an affair with Randall Lamb, 40, for more than three years, and its aftermath created months of bitter accusations between Holder, Lamb and Lamb's wife, including allegations of stalking and harassment.
Jennifer Lamb had prepared but not yet filed a potentially costly lawsuit against Holder accusing her of alienating the affections of her husband, investigators said.
Mary Ann Holder met Randall Lamb the night before the shooting rampage to give him a $10,000 check in an apparent settlement aimed at staving off the threatened lawsuit, criminal investigators said in a search warrant. Holder then asked to meet him again the next morning in a community college parking lot.
That meeting ended with Holder firing several shots at Randall Lamb and wounding him in the shoulder. He recovered in a hospital and has returned home.
GREENSBORO — The five North Carolina children gunned down in Guilford County will be remembered at a collective funeral later this week.
The victims of what investigators think was a shooting spree by 36-year-old Mary Ann Holder will be Friday at Pleasant Garden Baptist Church. Officers say Holder apparently shot one of her sons and three other children while they slept at her Pleasant Garden home, shot and wounded her married former lover, then killed her younger son.
Holder then killed herself.
Holder's ex-husband Rocky Smith and the couple's 21-year-old daughter Christina Smith say they had no indication that anything was wrong. Smith said Holder had bought a car full of groceries the day before the shootings.
Holder's ex-husband, Rocky Smith, and the couple's daughter, Christina Smith, 21, say they had no indication anything was wrong. Christina Smith said Holder had bought a carload full of groceries the day before the Nov. 20 shootings.
"I believe that everything has happened for a reason that led up to this moment. I will never know those reasons. I don't think I need to know those reasons," said Christina Smith, who stayed in daily contact with her mother after her parents divorced.
Holder, 36, had been having an affair with Randall Lamb, 40, for more than three years, but it was coming to an end after months of bitter accusations between Holder, Lamb and Lamb's wife, including allegations of stalking and harassment.
Jennifer Lamb had prepared but not yet filed a potentially costly lawsuit against Holder accusing her of alienating the affections of her husband, investigators said.
Criminal investigators also took possession of a $10,000 check Holder wrote to Jennifer Lamb in an apparent settlement aimed at staving off the threatened lawsuit, according to a search warrant. Holder gave the check to Randall Lamb in a Walmart parking lot the night before her shooting rampage, then asked to meet him again the next morning in a community college parking lot.
That meeting ended with Holder firing several shots at Randall Lamb and wounding him in the shoulder. He recovered in a hospital and has returned home.
Holder is accused of killing her two sons — Robert Dylan Smith, 17, and Zachary Smith, 14. Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said she also killed the niece and nephew she took into her home when her sister died — Richard Brian Suttles, 17, and Hannaleigh Suttles, 8. She also mortally wounded Makayla Leigh Woods, Robert's 15-year-old girlfriend.
Investigators plan chemical screenings of the victims to see if the children had been drugged or if there was anything influencing Holder's behavior.
"I think there will be a time that we can say we rule out certain theories, and we can come back and say, 'Based on what we know we think this might be what it was.' But I don't know we'll ever be able to prove why unless she wrote it somewhere we haven't seen so far," said Col. Randy Powers, the chief deputy of the Guilford County Sheriff's Office.
The family donated the organs and tissues of Zachary Smith and Hannaleigh and Ricky Suttles and have been told that nearly two dozen people have been helped, Rocky Smith told WGHP/Fox 8, the Journal's news-gathering partner.
"We've heard of a child up north who got a heart from Zack and a young child here in the Triad who actually got a kidney from Zack. I hope I get to meet all of those folks one day," Rocky Smith said.
