Mother Leaves 19-Page Suicide Note Before Killing Husband, Son and Herself

On Sept. 26, 2017, Stephanie Hoover of South Dakota shot and killed her husband and son before taking her own life. While planning out the tragic act, she wrote a 19-page suicide note, explaining her reasons.

The 35-year-old Hoover killed her husband, Rob, and their 7-year-old son, Zachary at their home before she used the handgun on herself.

According to the Argus Leader, which published excerpts of the note on May 3, Hoover wrote extensive instructions on the care of her surviving children, two sons aged 10 and 7 and a 1-year-old daughter. She included times for dentist appointments, their bedtimes, their favorite sports and activities to plan their future in the town of Lennox.

In the letter, Hoover explained why she chose to kill Zachary, writing, “He’s better off with his momma in heaven where I can take care of him and be at peace.” She considered him a “beautiful soul” who was a “struggle to deal with” because of behavioral issues.

Hoover considered killing the other three children to “spare pain to them.”

“I owe you an explanation,” Hoover wrote to her mother, Kristi Abbas. “I’ve done something that I’m so sorry for and so ashamed of, and it has cost me my family and future.”

Hoover explained she embezzled money from her employer, Southridge Healthcare. She estimated that she stole at least $80,000 or more in the four years she worked at the company as an accounts receivable specialist. Hooever insisted her husband had no idea about her activities because she “always paid the bills and managed the account.”

According to the Leader, she learned about an audit in late September, which led her to believe she would be caught and forced to spend time in prison. She then met a lawyer and learned she could face 10 to 15 years in prison.

Hoover believed that without her, Rob would not be able to care for the children.

“Rob can’t take care of the kids alone, let alone provide for them,” she wrote in the letter. “They’d lose the house and have nothing.”

Friends and family do not understand how Hoover came to this conclusion, as they all believed Rob was a caring and loving father.

“He cared a lot about kids,” Rob’s father Bob Hoover told the Leader. “You aren’t the most well-compensated person in the world in that type of job, but he loved it. He loved the kids, and he loved what he did.”

Last year, one of his high school friends, Emily Mitchell, wrote on Facebook about how Rob Hoover helped her with her son who had behavioral issues.

“That was just who he was,” Mitchell wrote. “Saw someone struggling and if he could help them, he’d try. Considering we were never close, that small gesture speaks volumes about his character.”

Hoover believed her surviving kids “will be in pain” if her parents did not follow the directions she laid out in the letter. She also told her parents not to tell her children what she did.

According to the Leader, Hoover also wrote three separate notes to her surviving children, telling them to “remember you are loved… and perfect in every way.”

“When you look at a 7-year-old being shot four times, it tears your heart out, because it’s so cold,” Bob Hoover told the Leader. “It’s so cold, so calculated. Just because you didn’t think they made enough money or could take care of kids, or because he had a little behavioral problem, that’s why you have to do that. I can’t fathom it. You don’t sleep.”

Photo credit: Argus Leader/Hoover Family