A Kansas man has been arrested and charged with the murders of his mother and aunt at the home the three shared in Lenexa.
Luke Howard, aged 34, arrived at a Walgreens in Liberty, Missouri, with blood on him and confessed to the staff that he needed to surrender to the police, as reported by KMBC. The shocking incident took place on Wednesday.
At around 5 a.m., Lenexa officers responded to a call at a residence, where they discovered the bodies of Joyce Austin, 71, and Valerie Howard, 63, who had been fatally shot. It was revealed that the victims were former sisters-in-law residing together with Howard’s son.
According to police statements, Luke Howard explained to investigators that he resorted to shooting the two women after they served him a 30-day eviction notice. The authorities mentioned that they had been called to the residence twice earlier in the week due to domestic disturbance issues.
Detectives said they found 10 to 12 shotgun casings in the living room.
An affidavit for Howard’s arrest says that police were called to the home on February 10 after he complained that his mother had grabbed him around the neck and pushed him. Valerie Howard told police that her son came into her room and broke an ashtray and caused her to fall. She said that he had started being violent toward both women in 2021 and that they had been locking themselves in their rooms “as much as possible.”
The day after that incident, the women served him with an eviction notice. He reacted angrily and called police, telling them that one of the women had pointed a gun at him, a claim he promptly retracted and said he just thought she was going to get a gun, KCTV said.
Austin told police that day that she knew Howard had two guns but did not know where they were kept. Authorities searched his room but found no weapons, and Johnson County Mental Health spoke with him. He told them he didn’t have any firearms.
Howard is behind bars in Clay County, Missouri, on a $5 million bond awaiting extradition to Kansas, KSHB reported.
