It sure is sad when something like this happens. The folks you linked to had been at it for several years. It's even harder when you know the folks that got the bad end of the deal too.
Here's one from my area. I kept this on file and it doesn't seem that far back but time does fly. This family was and still is missed greatly. Hard working folks. Mr. Stanley Cole was a cattle buyer. Had friends and customers all over this county as well as several others. Hard to imagine what a fence, driveway or property line does to some people. It just isn't worth it.
I raise cattle on this farm. No one else has cattle that joins my property. When I decided to fence in all the open land I didn't run any of the fence on the lines. Some I even backed off 20 feet. Like I said it isn't worth it in the end.
07/08/2002
"We Never Thought It Would Come To This"
Police Arrest James Bryant Hudson One Day After Murders; Friends Of Slain Family Members Say Suspect Was "Mean"
After combing the community and the county at large Halifax County deputies arrested 55 year old James Bryant Hudson Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m. and charged him with seven counts, including the murder of three family members.
Hudson was charged with killing the three — 64 year old Thomas Wesley Cole and his wife, 64 year old Patsy Ayers Cole of 3228 Virgie Cole Road and 56 year old Walter Stanley Cole of 4012 Virgie Cole Road. All three were killed by shotgun blasts from close range with the two brothers being killed in a private driveway and Patsy Cole being shot in a nearby garden.
Hudson, whose address is listed as 4034 Virgie Cole Road, has been charged with the murder of all three people, and with three counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He has also been charged with the murder of Wesley and Stanley Cole as part of the same act which means that he will be tried for capital murder.
A witness said Wesley Cole was the first of the three to be shot with Stanley Cole next, followed by the shooting of Patsy Cole.
Immediately following the 5 p.m. shooting Wednesday, law enforcement officers put out an all points bulletin in search of a 1986 red and white Dodge pick-up truck belonging to Hudson, but it was not until some 23 hours later that deputies saw him driving the truck on North Fork Church Road. They were able to stop Hudson, and he was arrested without incident.
Hudson's truck was impounded and among the contents of the truck listed were a .38 caliber revolver, a Browning automatic shotgun, a knife, a box of bullets, a holster, a cartridge from a revolver, several spent shells and other things.
Neighbors and friends said they were in shock over the incident. They described the Coles as "wonderful friends and neighbors" who had lived in the community all their lives. Others were not so enamored with Hudson, whom several described as being "mean" and apparently envious of his neighbors. "When someone is as mean spirited as he was, how do you classify that?" one asked rhetorically. "But we never thought it would come to this," he said.
There apparently had been some long-standing conflict between Stanley Cole and Hudson about the right of way of a driveway leading to Hudson's home which was about one-half mile off the roadway. But some neighbors said there was more to the problem than the driveway issue although they did not elaborate on their statement.
Funeral services for all three victims are set for today at Shady Grove United Church — at 10 a.m. for Stanley Cole and at 2 p.m. for Wesley and Patsy Cole.
