[AL] Bill, Tabatha, and baby Logan Hancock are gone - Another officer-involved familicide

...In the living room, the deputy found [Oxford Police Officer] William Luther "Bill" Hancock, 28, Tabatha Murphy Hancock, 28, and their 8-month-old son, Logan Daniel Hancock. A preliminary investigation revealed all suffered from gunshot wounds...

FROM THE NEWS:

POLICE OFFICER KILLS WIFE AND SON BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF
WBRC
Jul 21, 2010
[Excerpts] In east Alabama, investigators say a police officer killed his wife and son before committing suicide in the Newell community in Randolph County. Investigators say William Hancock shot and killed his wife, Tabitha, and their infant son, Logan, before turning the gun on himself. Family members and friends say the couple appeared to have a healthy relationship... [Full article here]

OXFORD POLICE OFFICER, WIFE AND CHILD SHOT TO DEATH
Anniston Star
by Cameron Steele
Jul 20, 2010
[Excerpts] Oxford police officer William Hancock, his wife Tabatha and their 8-month-old son Logan were found shot to death this morning in their home on Old Highway 431 in Wedowee, Randolph County Chief Deputy William Dillard said... At 7:30 a.m., a deputy arrived at the Hancocks’ home and forced his way into the house after finding all the doors locked... The release said all three suffered gun shots wounds. Dillard said the Alabama Bureau of Investigations has taken over the case... Hancock’s father is an Oxford police officer.... [Full article here]

THREE FOUND SHOT TO DEATH
The Randolf Leader
by Vanessa Sorrell Burnside
July 20, 2010 9:19 PM CDT
[Excerpts] ...According to a press release from Randolph County Sheriff's Office, a concerned caller said the residents of the home had not been seen, and the caller was concerned about their wellbeing... Mr. Hancock was employed as a police officer in Oxford, as is his father. Alabama Bureau of Investigations and Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences were called to the scene... [Full article here]

OFFICER, FAMILY FOUND DEAD; RANDOLPH COUNTY TURNS INVESTIGATION OVER TO ABI
Anniston Star
by Cameron Steele
Jul 21, 2010
[Excerpts] Oxford police officer William Hancock laughed as he told a reporter, earlier this month, about his chubby 8-month-old son Logan. Patrolling restaurant parking lots and roads near the Oxford Exchange, he talked at length with an Anniston Star reporter about being a new father and how much he loved his job. He said he wasn't looking forward to the 45 minutes it would take to get to his Wedowee home from Oxford... A relative, who did not wish to be identified, said Tabatha Hancock's family members had spent most of the day together grieving. Members of William Hancock's family declined to speak with The Star... Earlier in July, during that conversation with a reporter who was riding along on William Hancock's shift, he spoke of convincing his father Thomas to join the police department, too. Hancock said he'd worked as an Oxford police officer for four years and was still the man who volunteered to start shifts early... The Hancocks lived in a small house with a freshly cut yard and well-groomed bushes... [Full article here]

FEW ANSWERS IN RANDOLPH CO. FAMILY'S DEATH
abc3340.com
Jul 21, 2010
[Excerpts] The Randolph County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday refused to answer questions surrounding the deaths of three members of one family in what the county's coroner had described as an apparent double murder/suicide... "We're not going to say anything else about it," Randolph County Chief Deputy William Dillard said Wednesday, referring to a news release he said his office had drafted on Tuesday. Dillard refused to provide a copy of the news release and then hung up on ABC 33/40 when he was asked again to provide a copy. A spokeswoman for the Alabama Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday morning that the ABI was aware of the case, but that the Randolph County Sheriff's Office was still leading the investigation, and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences was assisting... People who knew Tabatha Hancock were still stunned at her death Wednesday. She was raised in Randolph County and had graduated from Woodland High School, not far from the home she shared with her husband and son. She had recently been promoted to a new position at a bank in Carrollton, Georgia. Tabatha Hancock was also remembered as a committed Christian who was involved in church at Jordan Chapel and had been excited about becoming a mother. People in the small community of Woodland were sickened at what had happened and were searching for answers. "It was a waste. Because it seems like, being such a young family and everything, they had everything going for them," Richard Lovvorn said. "You know, why would you do this? Why?"... Oxford Police Sergeant L.G. Owens said Bill Hancock had served Oxford as an officer for four years. Owens said Hancock had a clean service record and that his father, a former Randolph County sheriff's deputy, had joined the Oxford force earlier this year. A neighbor described Bill Hancock as hard to get to know. "He wasn't a really friendly guy," Larry Laney said. "I'd speak to him, and he didn't speak back. You know, he was kind of to himself. You didn't see family, brothers, sisters, nobody really around his house." "She would smile and speak," Laney said of Tabatha, adding that her husband did not do the same. "He wouldn't have nothing to do with nobody." [Full article here]

CONFUSION OVER OXFORD OFFICER’S DEATH INVESTIGATION
Anniston Star
by Cameron Steele
Jul 22, 2010
[Excerpts] Investigators Wednesday were awaiting autopsy results in the deaths of Oxford police officer William Hancock, his wife and infant child, found dead Tuesday, but exactly who was leading the investigation was unclear. The results could take seven to 10 days, officials with the Randolph County Coroners Office have said. The state Department of Forensic Sciences is performing the autopsies... Chief Deputy William Dillard said Tuesday afternoon the sheriff’s office turned over the triple homicide case to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. Lt. Greg Gregory, the head of ABI’s Jacksonville division, said the bureau was not investigating the case. Robyn Litchfield, an ABI spokeswoman in Montgomery, confirmed that Wednesday. Attempts Wednesday to reach Dillard and Sheriff Jeffrey Fuller were unsuccessful... [Alabama Bureau of Investigation. Lt. Greg] Gregory told The Star one of his ABI investigators responded to the scene and helped assist deputies and the De-partment of Forensic Sciences but is no longer actively involved. “We have no connection to (the case), and we’ve been directing questions to the sheriff’s office,” Litchfield said. A Randolph County Sheriff’s Office employee, who did not give a name, said Wednesday afternoon the sheriff’s office was investigating in conjunction with ABI and the Department of Forensic Sciences... “We’re all trying to get our heads around this,” [Assistant Chief Ron] Herbowy said. “It’s shocking.” Oxford police Chief Bill Partridge held a meeting Wednesday morning to talk to officers and staff about Hancock’s death... [Full article here]

OXFORD OFFICER OFF DUTY WHEN FAMILY FOUND DEAD
Anniston Star
by Cameron Steele
Jul 23, 2010
[Excerpts] Oxford police officer William Hancock was not scheduled to work the day he, his wife and infant son were found shot to death in their Wedowee home, Oxford police Chief Bill Partridge said Thursday. According to Partridge, Hancock was on his regularly scheduled days off, and had not worked the night before either. Partridge said he and an Oxford investigator responded to the scene Tuesday after Randolph County deputies called to alert them about the triple homicide. Hancock spent the last four years as a second shift patrolman for the Oxford Police Department. His father, Thomas Richard “Ricky” Hancock, joined the force as a third shift officer about a month ago... Counselors have been on-call at the department all week for people who need to talk about the tragedy... [Full article here]

RANDOLPH SHERIFF: ‘OTHER PARTIES’ NOT INVOLVED IN OXFORD OFFICER, FAMILY’S DEATHS
Anniston Star
by Vanessa Sorrell Burnside
Jul 24, 2010
[Excerpts] Randolph County deputies are not searching for suspects in the deaths of Oxford police officer William “Bill” Hancock, his wife and their infant son, Randolph County Sheriff Jeffrey Fuller said Friday... Investigator Greg Dendinger said he won’t know anything more specific about the case until the state Department of Forensic Sciences returns autopsy results and forensic analysis of evidence –- something that could seven to ten days or longer... Neither Dendinger nor Chief Deputy William Dillard could say Friday whether the deaths were a double murder/homicide. Both Dendinger and Dillard said the sheriff’s office is collaborating with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Forensic Sciences to solve the case. Earlier this week, there was confusion over which agency was leading the investigation. Tuesday, Dillard said the sheriff’s office had turned over the case to ABI. But local and state spokespersons for the bureau denied being actively involved. Dendinger said the mix-up arises partly because when ABI responds to an investigation, it usually takes over. But that’s not what happened this time, he said. “It’s a joint effort,” he said... [Full article here]

OXFORD OFFICER, FAMILY LAID TO REST
Anniston Star
by Cameron Steele
Jul 24, 2010
[Excerpts] Some were dressed in black clothing and wore dark sunglasses; others wore summer prints and clutched funeral bulletins in their hands as they filed, one by one, past the open coffin where 28-year-old Tabatha Murphy Hancock and her 8-month-old son Logan lay. In a closed casket beside his wife and child, lay Oxford police officer William “Bill” Hancock, also 28. It was more than an hour before the funeral service for the Hancocks, but already Jordan’s Chapel Methodist Church was packed. Those who were not family members and could not find seats inside the sanctuary packed themselves inside an all-purpose room where a projector screen and speakers had been set up in anticipation of a large crowd. And it was large. More than 300 people took time out of their Friday schedules to mourn the Hancocks... The reverends Chris Mitchell, David Holcombe and Brian Moore spoke for fifteen minutes each during the service, their speeches punctuated by sobs of their own and from family members as they quoted passages from the Bible, comforted the Hancock and Murphy families and prayed. As Mitchell began to read the birth and death dates of the Hancocks, his voice faltered on Logan’s name. “It’s unacceptable,” he said, through his tears... About 40 family members, including Michael and Patresa Murphy and Thomas Richard “Ricky” and Aurelia Hancock -  parents of Tabatha Hancock and Bill Hancock, respectively, sat close to the caskets at the front of the chapel. Members of the Oxford police and fire departments attended the service. Some were honorary pallbearers for Bill Hancock... Tabatha’s sister Heather Henderson was crying as she spoke at the end of the service. Henderson talked about listening to Tabatha tell stories when she and Bill first started dating, and how he was like a brother to her even though they weren’t related by blood. She stopped to collect herself before going to speak of Logan’s birth last November. She said her sister had been her best friend. Before people filed out of the church to join family members at the graveside in the church’s cemetery, Henderson said something that reflected on the tragedy and shock surrounding the deaths of her sister, baby nephew and brother-in-law. “Just know, regardless of whatever happened, they loved each other as family very much,” she said... [Full article here]

HANCOCK SCHOLARSHIP HONORS MOTHER, SON
Times-Georgian
by Amanda Thomas
July 23, 2010
[Excerpts] The University Of West Georgia is establishing a memorial scholarship in the names of a woman and her 8-month-old son who were found shot to death this week in their Randolph County, Ala., home. Tabatha Murphy Hancock, 28, and Logan Daniel Hancock were the daughter and grandson of UWG Bursar Pat Murphy. The scholarship has been established in their name through the UWG Foundation and will be administered by the bursar’s office. Specifics on the fund’s distribution have not been finalized, but the scholarship will be made available to any student regardless of classification or major... Murphy and Tabatha Hancock were UWG graduates. Hancock worked as a post-closing team leader in the central loan processing department for Community & Southern Bank in Carrollton... Donations for the scholarship may be made by check or credit card. Checks can be mailed directly to the foundation at 1601 Maple St., Carrollton, GA 30118. Credit card payments can be made online at the foundation’s website at http://www.westga.edu/alumni/index_1685.php. All payments should specifically indicate that they are for the “Tabatha & Logan Hancock Memorial Scholarship.” Questions regarding the scholarship can be e-mailed to the bursar’s office at bursar@westga.edu. [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence (IPV) abuse law enforcement public safety fatality fatalities lethal murder suicide alabama state child children]