commentary by Patrick H. Moore
It’s well known that more than any other cause, money issues can put great strain on marriages and are often instrumental in triggering divorces. One doesn’t expect the money squabbles to erupt, however, during the wedding reception and one certainly doesn’t expect the irate husband to MURDER his own lovely wife right there at the reception before turning the gun upon himself.
If I might draw a brief comparison: My wife and I are both as tight as a well-wrapped Ace bandage, yet at our reception the thought of murdering her over money never entered my pea-brain.
Here are the facts:
On Saturday, Oct. 4th, Dr. George “Scott” Samson, 54, a Terre Haute, Indiana anesthesiologist and licensed gun dealer, exchanged nuptials with Kelly Ecker, a rather young and pleasant looking 50-year-old nurse. They were both employed at Union Hospital.
So far we see nothing strange or potentially deadly about any of this.
According to Advance Indiana blogger, Gary R. Welsh, the plan was to hold both the wedding and the reception in a tent that had been set up outside their stately semi-rural home. Due to bad weather, however, (the first sign of doom?) a decision was made to move the wedding and reception to the Ohio Building in downtown Terre Haute.
So the wedding vows were made, presumably on cue, and the festivities began. At some point, however, during the reception, Dr. Samson and his new wife Kelly began to squabble and then it got nasty.
“Did you see that? Did he really call her a gold-digging bitch?
“Somebody give that man a chill pill.”
Apparently there were no ‘chill pills” on hand strong enough to cool things out and things got so acrimonious that the embarrassed guests started leaving. Dedicated friends, however, chose to stick around.
“The couple and guests retired to the couple’s home for an after-reception gathering. The last guests left the home a short time prior to the shooting as fighting between the two escalated.”
From that point on, the deadly (and apparently one-sided) battle escalated:
“Kelly made a frantic 911 call around 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning pleading for help. “He’s beating the shit out of me,” Kelly told the operator. “Who is?,” the operator asked. “My husband.” The call ended and moments later Kelly called back. “Help,” she pleaded. “Oh, my God. He’s going to kill me.” Multiple gun shots can be heard as the call ended.”
When the Terre Haute Police special response team arrived at the couple’s Eastern Vigo County home, they discovered Kelly Ecker’s ten-year old son and Samson’s elderly parents were present, which means they had witnessed the whole appalling affair. It was determined that our Coward of the Week, Samson, hid in the basement when the police arrived and at some point turned the gun on himself breaking what can only be described as a very tenuous connection. Based on an autopsy, “Kelly died of multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and chest.”
Dr. Samson had plenty of guns laying around the house. Gary R. Welsh writes:
Police recovered dozens of guns, including assault rifles and several hundred rounds of ammunition. The Vigo Co. Sheriff’s Department told WTHI-TV that Samson legally possessed the guns as a registered federally-licensed gun dealer.
Advance Indiana has an inside source who has divulged what led to the ferocious argument and Samson’s lethal actions. It seems that the original argument during the reception at the Ohio Building was all about money. The big-hearted doctor is reported to have told Kelly that she would never get her hands on any of his money, a desire on his part that was apparently reflected in a prenuptial agreement.
But wait, there is more to this. Advance Indiana reports that “Scott exploded when he went to pay the bill for the reception at the Ohio Building and learned that his wife had maxed out his credit card and the charge couldn’t be processed.”
So it appears that Kelly’s mistake (in addition to marrying this fool) was — in what could be construed as passive-aggressive behavior — maxing out his credit card. Ay Yi Yi!
And of course there is still more, thanks to Mr. Welsh’s excellent slething:
It seems that Kelly’s parents had serious concerns about her marrying the Good Doctor to such a degree that they chose not to attend the wedding.
This, if you think about it, may have been very unfortunate because there is just a slim sliver of chance that if Kelly’s parents had been there and had seen things deteriorating dramatically, they just might have called 911 much earlier and the horrible outcome could just possibly have been averted. But I realize this is a long shot.