Oreanna Myers murder suicide: Greenbrier County, West Virginia mother shoots dead her 5 children then self, along w/ burning house down. Leaves confession note citing mental illness.
‘My demons won over me.’ These are the words a 25 year old West Virginia woman wrote before reportedly shooting dead her five young children last month along with setting the family two story home on fire and then shooting herself dead in a suspected murder suicide.
Oreanna Antoinette Myers, shot her three sons and two stepsons from her husband’s previous marriage at their home near Williamsburg. The children were identified as Shaun Dawson Bumgarner, 7, Riley James Bumgarner, 6, Kian Myers, 4, Aarikyle Nova Myers, 3 and Haiken Jirachi Myers, age 1.
Greenbrier County Sheriff Bruce Sloan revealed details of the shootings and fire on December 8 at a news conference on Thursday.
According to Sloan, Myers who had left behind a confession note, was upset that her husband, Brian Bumgarner, had been staying with relatives during the work week for logistical reasons, instead of coming home to her.
The children’s bodies with shotgun wounds to the head were found inside the razed home while Myers was found outside near a picnic table, Sloan said. The shotgun used in the murders was discovered next to the mother.
Husband stayed with relatives instead of at home during the work week due to transportation issues
Sloan described how Myers was found, revealing that she was wearing a coat with a hood, and had a red line drawn across her face from ear to ear, reported MetroNews.com.
The red line was seen on surveillance video when Myers had gone to pick up two of her sons from the bus stop at the end of the school day. One of the boys asked her if it was blood on her face, but Myers replied she had just drawn the line.
An hour later, emergency dispatch got a 911 call about a house fire on Flynns Creek Road. Where firefighters arrived on the scene just before 4pm, they found the residence engulfed in flames.
The five-bedroom, one-bath house was built in 1888 and had an estimated price of $126,000.
About 40 minutes later, Myers’ body was found outdoors. Four of the children were found dead inside the house that same day, but the fifth child’s body was only recovered from the debris four days later, reported WVNS-TV.
Myers’ husband, Brian, stayed with relatives instead of at home during the work week due to transportation issues, Sloan said. Text messages between Myers and her husband showed that his absence during the week had been ‘a tremendous source of contention’ between them.
‘You’ll have nothing to come back to but to corpse [sic]. No one cares why should I?” Myers texted her husband. ‘Money will come and go, once I go there’s no replacing me. I beg and cry for help but never get it. It’s my mental health that needs tending to–help me– I do not care anymore.’
‘I beg and cry for help but never get it…’
Sloan said he was unaware of whether the woman was under treatment for any diagnosed mental illness at the time of the deaths. But in several notes she left before carrying out the murder-suicide and setting fire to her family home, Myers complained about the lack of treatment for mental illness, according to the sheriff.
‘This is no one’s fault but my own. My demons won over me. Sorry, I wasn’t strong enough,’ she wrote.
Myers texted her husband the day of the shootings saying she left something for him in their vehicle. A letter addressed to him was found inside with a bloody fingerprint next to her initials, Sloan said.
‘I’m so sorry Brian,’ she wrote to her husband. ‘I was not strong enough for you or this family. My head is so (expletive). I’m sorry for my evil crime. I was not strong enough to fight these demons, Snap. Crunch, Boom. So depressed. Heart numb. Soul completely shattered. I am sorry I failed you. I am sorry I failed our handsome boys. I am so sorry I was not strong enough. OAM.’
The sheriff said the woman also placed three notes inside a plastic bag and taped them to a side-view mirror on the family vehicle, including phone numbers to reach relatives, a confession and a will.
‘I had shot all of the boys in the head. I had set house on fire. I had shot myself in the head. I’m sorry,’ she wrote in her confession. ‘Mental health is serious. I hope one day someone will help others like me. Mental health is not to joke about or taken lightly. When someone begs, pleads, cries out for help, please help them. You just might save a life or more lives. Thank you, OAM.’
‘She murdered my babies and now everyone knows it’
Sheriff Sloan said Bumgarner had been away from the home for various periods of time over a 10-day period because the family’s only vehicle had been involved in a crash. Bumgarner had decided to stay with other family members in order to get a ride to work.
According to a joint obituary for four of the children, Haiken, Kian and Arikyle were Myers’ biological sons, while Shaun and Riley were her husband’s children from his marriage to Raven Frisbie.
Following Thursday’s press conference detailing the investigation into the murder-suicide, Frisbie wrote on her Facebook page: ‘She murdered my babies and now everyone knows it. I’ve been more than patient waiting for this day and now that it’s here there is nothing that is going to keep me quiet. I fought for them while they were alive and I will continue to do so after.’
According to the obituary for the children, Shaun was a second-grade student at Frankford Elementary and wanted to be an astronaut. Riley was in kindergarten and loved sports. He was also interested in music and was learning to play the piano and the ukulele.
‘Aarikyle loved painting, being a kid and was sneaky,’ the obituary read. ‘He loved Ninja Turtles and superheroes. Haiken being the youngest was spoiled by all and loved driving his toy cars.’
