Niagara Gazette

Local News

July 26, 2008

TRAGEDY:Ransomville teen kills girlfriend, himself

Shooter took own life at cemetery where father is buried

The Niagara County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an apparent murder/suicide that took the lives of two recent Wilson High School graduates Saturday morning in Ransomville.

Deputies believe Shawn Wolf, 19, shot and killed his girlfriend, 18-year-old Kari Gorman, of Wilson, at his Balmer Road home just before 9 a.m.

Wolf then drove to a cemetery in Youngstown and took his own life.

Sheriff’s department dispatchers received a 911 call at 8:58 a.m. from Wolf’s mother, reporting a girl at the home had been shot.

Deputies arrived and found Gorman in Wolf’s bedroom, dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head, Chief Deputy James Voutour said.

Wolf’s mother told deputies she’d heard an argument in Wolf’s room, but she had not heard a shot fired.

She said Wolf had gotten into his car and left the home, and that he may have been headed for Youngstown. Voutour said she was cooperative with deputies, giving them a description of the car.

At 9:12 a.m., a Youngstown police officer spotted Wolf’s car at Oakland Cemetery on Lake Road about eight miles from the house.

Officers searched the area and found Wolf’s body about 70 yards from his car, inside the cemetery.

He had died of an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

Voutour said it’s possible Wolf went to the cemetery because his father, who died in 1998, is buried there.

“There was some significance (to the location), but I think that’s probably personal,” Voutour said.



Read the full version of this story in Sunday's paper.

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