A woman has died after being critically wounded in a murder-suicide that killed one of her daughters and injured another last week in Kansas City, Kansas, a police spokeswoman said Monday.
Penny Smith, 50, of Kansas City, Kansas, died Sunday of injuries suffered in the shooting that occurred shortly before 11 p.m. at a home in the 2700 block of North 123rd Street, said Nancy Chartrand, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.
Smith’s 29-year-old daughter Kristy C. Thow was killed in the shooting that police said stemmed from domestic violence. The other daughter injured in the shooting has been released from the hospital, Chartrand said.
Smith’s husband, 51-year-old Christopher Smith, was called a suspect in the double murder-suicide. He was found dead inside the house from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chartrand said.
Over the weekend, a GoFundMe fundraising account was set up for Thow’s daughter to establish a college fund and cover other expenses.
“Kristy was shot multiple times protecting the life of her sister and her mom, my sister, from a crazed domestic abuser,” Melissa Dennis posted on GoFundMe.
Thow was a single mother, raising her daughter as well as helping raise her sister’s children, Dennis said in the post on the fundraising page.
“She had a heart of gold and lived life to the fullest!” Dennis said. “She will be missed.”
Dennis said her heart was broken knowing that Thow’s daughter “will never have her mom to guide her, provide for her or hold her ever again.”
On Sunday, Dennis updated the account saying that her sister died late that afternoon. Her sister leaves behind three daughters and three grandchildren, Dennis said in the update.
Anyone experiencing abuse can get help 24 hours a day by police at calling 911, the Rose Brooks Crisis Hotline, 816-861-6100; Friends of Yates Hotline, 913-321-0951; or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, Chartrand said. Those needing assistance in obtaining a protection from abuse order can contact the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s victim services at 913-573-5616.