Domestic dispute turns deadly

Daily American Republic

MILL SPRING, Mo. -- An apparent ongoing domestic dispute between a Wayne County couple ended on Thanksgiving with one dead and another in a St. Louis hospital recovering from gunshot wounds.

Dead is Billy D. Mann, 33, while his 30-year-old girlfriend, Tomye D. Davis, is in stable condition at St. Louis University Hospital, according to Wayne County Sheriff Larry Plunkett Sr. Davis, he said, is expected to recover.

Plunkett said that at about 3 p.m. Thursday Mann and Davis were riding west of Piedmont, Mo., in Mann's pickup. Mann drove to a wooded area where he assaulted Davis, said Plunkett.

When Davis got out of the truck, "he stated that if she ran, she would shoot her," Plunkett said. She "feared that he would shoot her anyway, so she ran."

Mann fired one shot from a 12-gauge shotgun from 50 feet away, striking Davis in the legs.

Mann apparently shot himself several hours later as he approached a police roadblock on Highway 49.