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Cops say Plant City woman shot her mother, then turned the gun on herself

Plant City police chief Richard Mills says officers were called to the home three times in the two days before the May 3 shooting, the first time over an argument about pornography.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 13, 2026, 5:11 p.m. ETWritten Aug 15, 2026, 5:02 p.m. ET

More on this incident

said a woman shot her mother at a home in , , in the early hours of Sunday, May 3, 2026. said a gun was used in the killings and that the shooter then turned it on herself. police were the responding agency. The two people named as killed are Valerie DeBoe, 55, and Kelsey Dempsey. Both names appear in the account cited below, where they run alongside a photo caption for a GoFundMe fundraiser. DeBoe, a grandmother, was visiting from Clearwater, and said she was the mother of . name as the shooter. She is dead. The family had stayed in a hotel overnight after a series of police calls to the home. police chief Richard Mills said officers were first called to the Dempsey home on Friday, May 1, over a "verbal confrontation" about pornography that 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, according to the chief, police were asked 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." Mills, who said he was at the scene, described what officers found there: "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."

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Revision history

  1. Version 115 Aug 2026, 20:55current

    First published.

  2. Version 115 Aug 2026, 21:02current

    First published.

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