Authorities have released the names of the two eastern Iowans who were shot and killed on Tuesday. Muscatine police say the two people found shot dead were romantically involved and died in an apparent murder-suicide. After a call to police about gunshots Tuesday morning, officers found 45-year-old Michelle Barnhart’s slain body at her home. A short time later, the body of her boyfriend, 38-year-old Shawn Taylor, was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in his S-U-V, parked at Wildcat Den State Park in Muscatine County. One of Barnhart’s neighbors, Mel Doughty, says she had known both victims for two years. Doughty says they were friendly, quiet and normal people. Barnhart’s house in Muscatine is about a mile away from another house where in February, two people were shot to death. A Florida man is charged in that case.
Iowa's Radio News Network
