Tragic Death of the Week


Jessica Nichole Padilla, 22, five-months pregnant and mother of a 2-year old daughter was killed by her father, Seaward, who fired 31 shots from a .380-caliber handgun into his wife and daughter, before calling 911, setting his house on fire, firing at responding police and firemen, and killing himself. Padilla's daughter, Jaycee, was safely removed from the burning house by firemen.

Padilla was a nursing student and worked as a cashier at a local service station. The father of her children was very active in their lives and seemed devastated when he appeared on local television after the incident.

Of course we can never know what happened in the family, as all involved are dead. The child is too young to provide any information, and hopefully was not a witness. Still, we can infer that a lot of anger was involved. Seaward Padilla would have had to reload his gun at least three times to fire so many shots. Local newspapers report that there were repeated incidents of domestic violence. Both senior Padillas had filed for divorce at one time or another, although all cases were eventually dropped. And both had taken out protection orders against the other. Some reports indicate that Mr. Padilla was unhappy about his daughter's pregnancy and existing child, but other sources describe him as an involved and loving grandfather.

I tried to find some statistics about spousal murder, but the most recent information was from 1995. In that year of the individuals indicted for killing their spouse, 59% were men and 41& were women. "Victim provocation" - meaning the murder victim had attacked or threatened their killer before the incident - was cited by 10% of the male perpetrators and 44% of the female perpetrators.