Grandma confesses in WP triple homicide.

This story comes from today's dreadful News-Leader:

Grandmother held in killings of three
Pamela K. Burns admitted shootings to authorities, statement says.

By Ryan Slight
News-Leader Staff

West Plains — Tricycles sat idle Tuesday under a strand of yellow police tape that highlighted one of dozens of apartments in Plainview Estates.
It was inside No. 1003 in the 2700 block of Burke Avenue where West Plains officers found Keith A. Bennett and his two children shot dead "execution-style" Monday afternoon.

Within 24 hours, Pamela K. Burns — Bennett's mother-in-law and grandmother of 6-year-old Klover M. Lawrence and 4-year-old Keith A. Bennett II — reportedly confessed to killing all three.

But authorities can't say why.

"I don't know what the motive was," said Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Martin Elmore, who spoke for the multi-agency law enforcement investigation. "I just don't have any information that would play to that at this point."

Authorities charged the 51-year-old Pomona woman with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of armed criminal action.

Associate Circuit Judge David Evans ordered Burns to be held without bond at the Howell County Jail after her Tuesday arraignment. Burns is scheduled to appear at a court hearing early next week, Assistant Howell County Prosecutor Rizwan Ahad said.

West Plains police officers were called to a medical emergency with "CPR in progress" at the apartment at 3:22 p.m. Monday. They arrived within two minutes, Elmore said.

Sandra Bennett, Bennett's wife and Burns' daughter, met officials and first responders at the residence after she apparently placed an emergency call.

Police found 28-year-old Keith Bennett on a couch with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, said a probable cause statement filed by Det. Richard Rhoads. Authorities recovered a handgun, but declined to say where it was found.

The children were in a bathtub in the apartment's main bathroom, officials said. They also appeared each to have a gunshot wound to the head.

Officials did not indicate whether the apartment had been broken into.

"I've not heard anything to lead me to believe that there was any ransacking or things of that nature," Elmore said.

A Howell County coroner pronounced each victim dead at the scene, the probable cause statement said.

Southwest Missouri Forensics was scheduled to conduct autopsies on the bodies late Tuesday, officials said.

Burns allegedly confessed to killing each victim when interviewed by authorities.

"The confession was audiotaped and heard by officers from all agencies involved," Rhoads wrote in his report.

Officials contended that Burns posed a threat to the community because of the "violent nature" of the offense.

The suspect bowed her head and made no comment as she left the West Plains Police Department for a jail booking, clutching bottled water and cigarettes against her slight frame.

At Plainview Estates, children frolicked across the grass between houses in yards adjacent to the Bennett residence.

Danny Gannon, a neighbor who arrived home shortly after the shootings, said the incident startled what he considered a peaceful, crime-free community.

"It is surprising that this happened so close to us," he said, shaking his head.

The West Plains man said initial news of the children's deaths prompted fearful reactions from many residents in the northwest West Plains neighborhood.

Neighbors "were pretty well terrified by it," Gannon said. "It's just unusual for it to happen."

Police requested and received assistance from the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Howell County Sheriff's Department throughout the investigation.

Ahad said a prosecuting attorney's office investigator was working with law enforcement to complete the investigation. He expected the interviews to be completed in a couple of days.

Several officers worked the case straight through the night Tuesday until charges were filed, Elmore said.

"I think it's really rough on everybody," the sergeant said. "It is fatiguing and it's difficult. ... They're all tough, but they are especially hard to handle when there are kids involved."

Authorities could not recall whether law enforcement agencies in the region had ever dealt with a triple homicide.

"Usually they are in the single variety, and it's pretty rare around here," Ahad said. "We've had a couple of twos, but not three."