NORTON, Kan. — A Maysville native was murdered Sunday in Kansas, a victim of domestic violence, according to news reports.
Lori Shields, 38, of Norton, Kansas, was found dead Sunday afternoon in her rural Norton home, officials said. Her husband, Damien Shields, 42, was arrested late Monday and charged with murder, officials said. His arrest came after he was released from a medical center in Missouri where he was hospitalized on Sunday suffering from wounds that we allegedly self-inflicted.
Lori Shields was the mother of three children, ages 14, 8 and 3.
According to a press release from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, “with the assistance of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, KBI and the Norton County Sheriff’s Office made an arrest connected to the murder of Lori Shields. At approximately 4:20 p.m. on Monday, April 8, as he was released from the Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Damien L. Shields, 42, of Norton, was arrested for the first-degree murder of his wife, 38-year-old Lori Shields.” He was lodged in the Cape Girardeau County Jail.
Damien Shields had previously served prison time for domestic violence, police said.
Lori Shields was a secretary at Eisenhower Elementary School in Norton. Classes in the school district were cancelled Monday in response to her death.
Lori Shields’ sister, Mary Humphrey of Flemingsburg, told a Kansas news station she received a call from Damien on the day of the murder.
“He was talking in a calm manner and I only really answered it because it was her phone. After I finished letting him speak, I asked him, I was like, ‘Well, Damien where is Lori? Where is she at?’ and he just answered in the calmest voice, ‘Oh, she’s dead. I killed her,’” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said she immediately contacted law enforcement in Norton.
“I was crying uncontrollably, but they went and checked on her,” Humphrey said. “It was taking hours for them to contact me back and I knew then something wasn’t right.”
Lori Shields’ aunt, Dr. Edna Thomas, said Wednesday she was on her way from Nebraska to Kansas to help with arrangements for the return of her niece’s body to Kentucky and to help with her three children. She said the family hopes to gain custody of the children.
