It was 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 7 and Ashley Halcomb had awoken to listen to the sound of a knock on the door. It is not essentially the most handy time for somebody to be asking to come back into her home and he or she felt a way that one thing, something, was awry.
“From the time I opened my eyes to the noise, I had a sense that one thing wasn’t proper,” Halcomb, who lives in Mapleton, stated. “Each my husband and I knew one thing was incorrect.”
Certainly, one thing horrible had occurred to their oldest daughter, 20-year-old Mary Halcomb, and a detective from the Peoria Police Department – together with Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood – had arrived at their residence at midnight of night time to provide them the information no mother and father ever need to hear.
Mary had been killed earlier that night time at a house within the 1400 block of South Griswold Road in Peoria. Upon listening to the information, Ashley went right into a state of shock, not fairly believing the info that she had heard from the authorities.
“I went into sheer shock and numbness,” Ashley stated. “I did not need to consider any of it was true.”
Sadly for Ashley, her husband, Luke, her two different youngsters Chloe and Braxton and the remainder of her household, it was true. The circumstances surrounding her loss of life had been considered “brutal (and) violent” by a Peoria County choose and have the household questioning about the best strategy to transfer ahead following an incredible shock.
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The way it occurred
In keeping with the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office, detectives from the Peoria Police Division discovered Mary’s physique on the steps of stairs inside the house, with a gunshot wound in her neck. Situated in her fingers was a firearm with a bloody fingerprint.
Officers started looking out the house, once they got here throughout a bed room soaked in blood. A sticky be aware was positioned to the wall, with a promise that Mary would not break the center of her boyfriend, 18-year-old Nathaniel Archuleta. If she broke the promise, Archuleta would don’t have any alternative however to “euthanize” her.
Archuleta was on the scene that night time and spoke with detectives. Nevertheless, Assistant State’s Legal professional Terry Muench stated that he incessantly modified his story, at first telling detectives that the gun used to kill Mary by accident went off when he was making an attempt to scrub it, however modified tack when it was found that he had nothing to scrub the firearm obtainable to him in the home.
He did inform detectives that he was upset Mary was speaking to a different man that night and denied placing the gun in her fingers. Nevertheless, officers discovered a loaded clip inside his automobile, and an post-mortem from Harwood’s workplace indicated that when the gun was fired, it was 2 to three ft from Mary’s neck.
Due to the inconsistencies in his story, Muench argued in court docket that Archuleta had been making an attempt to cowl up his alleged actions to border it as a suicide.
Circuit Decide Mark Gilles dominated final week that Archuleta must be held on the Peoria County Jail earlier than his trial on first-degree homicide prices. Arraignment is ready for Oct. 10 at 1 p.m.
‘A coronary heart as massive as Texas’
Mary was born when Ashley was 20 years outdated, and her mom says that the 2 grew up collectively, in some methods. By the point she grew to become an grownup, the 2 considered one another as shut associates.
“We did all the things collectively,” Ashley stated. “She informed me all the things – generally a little bit bit an excessive amount of – however I knew she trusted me.”
Ashley stated that Mary had a “contagious” chortle and was somebody who had a “coronary heart the dimensions of Texas.”
“She’d do something for anybody,” Ashley stated.
Jayne Halcomb, Mary’s paternal grandmother, stated that she was a “variety, giving” one who cared for folks – applicable contemplating she was finding out to turn into a nurse at Midwest Technical Institute.
“At first, she needed to turn into a health care provider,” Jayne stated. “After she grew up, I feel she realized that being a nurse could be finest. She labored two to a few jobs and was a nurse’s support at a number of nursing houses and hospitals.”
Jayne additionally talked about Mary’s ardour for softball, the place she performed catcher for a number of touring groups. The household would incessantly journey along with her to look at her play, with Jayne noting that she was a strong teammate to these she shared the diamond with.
“She was a superb, staff participant,” Jayne stated. “She was at all times looking for the opposite individual. She wasn’t self-centered.”
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Attempting to clarify the unexplainable
Ashley says she did not know a lot about Archuleta, the person that Mary was with on the night time of her loss of life. She knew that Mary frequented the home in South Peoria, however not a lot else.
“I knew that she would go to his home and (she) was associates with him,” Ashley stated. “(However) that is all I do know.”
Now, she has to determine a manner ahead with out her eldest daughter and should clarify this to her youthful youngsters. Chloe is in highschool and, in accordance with Ashley, is struggling to grasp what occurred two weeks in the past.
“They had been finest associates,” Ashley stated. “She is taking it fairly tough, grieving one of the best ways she will be able to, however making an attempt to maintain her thoughts busy by sports activities and faculty.”
As for Braxton, the youngest of Ashley’s three youngsters, he did not fairly perceive what occurred to his massive sister till he noticed her physique on the visitation held in Bartonville on Sept. 14.
“It is arduous to clarify with him,” Ashley stated. “He is solely 10, so up till her providers, I do not assume he absolutely comprehended the forever-ness of it. However when he noticed his sister on the funeral residence over the weekend, it actually hit him and he is grieving even tougher.”
Ashley described Mary as a finest pal to her youthful siblings, which matches the outline of her obituary, which famous how she was at all times able to help at residence.
“I miss seeing the interactions between her and her siblings,” Ashley stated.
Though two weeks have handed, Ashley stays shocked as to what she has witnessed, along with her eldest youngster and finest pal gone in a flash for no apparent motive.
“It seems like a extremely dangerous dream,” Ashley stated.
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This text initially appeared on Journal Star: Family grieves loss of Mapleton woman killed in Peoria shooting
