Social media influencer Sara Gilson was shot to death by her estranged husband in what authorities are investigating as a murder suicide, barely two weeks after she amplified a sex abuse allegation that had been filed against him.
Dispatch audio indicates that cops in Owasso, Oklahoma, were mere minutes away from saving her as they rushed to the scene.
“I’m trying to reach him back, but I could hear a female in the background screaming and crying,” a dispatcher can be heard saying on the 911 call recording, obtained by TMZ. “Some sort of loud bang in the background.”
A call came in moments later from a boy at a neighbor’s home who reported that his stepfather had shot his mother, NBC News reported.
Police found the 43-year-old mother of two and her estranged husband, Jeremiah “Shawn” Duffey, 48, dead of gunshot wounds to the head late Thursday while responding to an 11:16 p.m. call, KTUL-TV reported.
Gilson had participated in the viral social media trend in which people set up a faux-documentary interview and state their case. In a July 11 TikTok video for her approximately 30,000 followers, Gilson sat down in a white chair under the words, “Preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon-to-be ex-husband who I just found out is a pedophile.”
@mrsgilson I wish I was joking. #plottwist #netflix #documentary
Underneath that was, “I wish I was joking,” followed by hashtags including one for “plot twist.”
Gilson had on June 10 obtained an emergency protective order against Duffey, a youth basketball coach, on police advice. The day before, he was accused of kissing and fondling a 15-year-old girl who was on the team, KTUL reported. He was ordered to leave their home and stay 100 yards away from Gilson, according to People. On Jun 23 the order was extended through Aug. 24, according to court records. Gilson said Duffey had a gun and had threatened suicide, The Oklahoman reported.
The 15-year-old’s mother had also sought an order of protection, claiming that another coach had caught Duffey alone with her daughter and called police. Duffey fled. The girl later told her mother he had sent her inappropriate messages, invited her to his hotel room during a team trip and given her money to buy her silence, The Oklahoman reported.
Police had been looking for Duffey since then, and the dispatcher the night of Gilson’s murder was heard in the background of the recording referencing “a male that we were looking for a few weeks ago after he got caught kissing a juvenile,” TMZ reported.
A fundraiser for Gilson’s two children had nearly reached its $28,000 goal by Sunday afternoon.