Newly released search warrants name woman in Plant City shooting
Police say a woman shot her mother, Valerie DeBoe, 55, at a home in Plant City, Fla., in the early hours of May 3, then turned the gun on herself. Search warrants in the police investigation name her as Hailey Dempsey.
By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 13, 2026, 5:11 p.m. ETWritten Aug 15, 2026, 4:55 p.m. ET
say a woman shot her mother, Valerie DeBoe, 55, at a home in , , in the early hours of May 3, then . said a gun was used in the killings and that the shooter then turned it on herself. The shooter is .
name the woman as .
DeBoe, a grandmother, was visiting from Clearwater. The published report names two victims, DeBoe and Kelsey Dempsey; both names appear alongside the caption of a photograph of a GoFundMe fundraiser. The family had stayed in a hotel overnight after a series of police calls to the home.
police chief Richard Mills said officers were called to the Dempsey home three times in the days beforehand. The first call, on Friday, May 1, related to what Mills described as a "verbal confrontation" over porn allegedly found on her husband Jay's cell phone. Later that same day, Mills said, she asked officers to check whether there was a tracking device on her car; nothing was found. The following day, Mills said, a third call came in, asking police to accompany the family back to the family home to pick up clothing.
"It wasn’t cheating or anything like that, evidently it was just porn, and they were having an argument over that," Mills said. "I think that’s what everything stemmed from."
Of the scene itself, Mills said: "I’ve been in law enforcement for 34 years, I was on that scene, and it was probably the worst scene that I’ve ever seen in my life." He added: "It’s absolutely heartbreaking. the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life."
This account rests on a single published report. The material available does not give a total number of people killed, and it contains no statement from police about the state of their inquiry.
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