Searching the home of Rancho Tehama spree killer Kevin Neal revealed a fifth murder victim, his wife. “Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday they found the body of Kevin Neal’s wife in the floor boards inside their home.’We believe that’s what started this whole event,’ he said, adding that they were searching for Neal’s wife under suspicions that something might have happened to her. He said: ‘[We believe he] cut a hole in the floor and literally put her body in the hole.'”
Neal apparently murdered his wife and two neighbors with whom he’d been feuding before going on a wild ride through the town of Rancho Tehama Reserve, shooting at random targets before focusing his fire on the local elementary school.
According to his mother, Neal was increasingly frustrated with an ongoing dispute with his neighbors. She told the Associated Press her son claimed his neighbors were running a methamphetamine lab with fumes that were harming his nine dogs.
She said Neal called him the day before the shooting saying: “Mom it’s all over now. I have done everything I could do and I am fighting against everyone who lives in this area.”
Two of his first victims were two of his neighbors, police said. …
Fourteen people, including 7 children, were injured.
Neal, who was prohibited from owning firearms based on two outstanding felony assault charges as well as a restraining order issued to his neighbors had three firearms — two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle — during the attack. California’s famously rigid gun control laws apparently didn’t restrain him in the least.
Neal was shot and killed in a subsequent shootout with police.