A tragic story

If ever there were a time when a person needed her community to stand behind her, this is it.

We don't know much about Katherine Moshiri except the hell she has endured in the past week. We know she earned money by selling things on eBay. We know she was a protective mother who sought to shield her family. We know she lived in fear, that she went to the authorities, filled out paperwork and claimed that her husband had locked her and her family inside her house and had threatened to kill her and take her children to his homeland in Iran. We have been told this woman sought protection from a women's shelter but was turned away because her teenage son was too old to stay there. We suspect she was offered other options and that she declined to stay the night in a hotel or travel to the nearest family shelter that would take her -- in Columbia.

We know where she lives, on West Mary Street, near the lovely Jackson City Park, just a skip from Hubble Creek and a hop to the baseball field.

We know that despite being shot three times in the head and once in the shoulder, she had enough strength to run out of the house and make it to the sheriff's department four blocks away with the help of a passer-by. We know that after she ran out, her husband shot her three children. Mike Jeffers, who was 16, is dead. Her 4-year-old daughter Madison Lynne Moshiri is dead. And we know, before killing himself, he also shot Katherine's 2-year-old Meghan, who is clinging to life after also being shot in the head.

But we don't know Katherine.

And we don't know how she feels. We can't imagine it, though her story steals our breath when we ponder her burdens.

She was released from the hospital recently. She must now arrange her children's funerals. She must somehow try to untangle the twisted forces that turned the man she once loved into a murderer. She must somehow try to extinguish flames of guilt any mother would have in similar circumstances. She must try to hold herself together while her 2-year-old remains in critical condition.

We don't know much about Katherine Moshiri.

But one thing we do know: This woman needs our help.

If you would like to make a donation to help Katherine Moshiri, you may do so at any US Bank location in the area. If you would like to lend emotional support, you may leave condolences for her children at www.mccombsfuneralhome.com.