Kimberly D. Barnes, 46, a White woman from Bolton, New York, was killed on the morning of November 10, 2015, inside a home on Thunderbird Road, a dead-end stretch near Lake George that should have been quiet at that hour. In the days leading up to it, Barnes had been living away from the house with the children while the relationship with David J. Barnes had deteriorated into separation, with authorities later describing a history of domestic disputes between them.
That Tuesday began with something ordinary: a return to the residence to take care of routine matters and tend to an animal. Investigators said an argument flared once Barnes and David were inside. In the middle of that dispute, their 20-year-old daughter witnessed the shooting, then ran out of the home and fled to a neighbor’s house for help.
A 911 call brought deputies from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office to Thunderbird Road at about 8 a.m. The scene was treated as dangerous and uncertain, and officers used a robot to check the interior before moving in. When authorities entered, both Barnes and David were already dead. Investigators said Barnes had been shot multiple times, and that David died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after turning the rifle on himself.
With the suspected shooter also dead, there were no arrests, no charges to file, and no criminal case to prosecute in court. The investigation was framed as an apparent murder-suicide rather than an unresolved homicide, with the timeline centered on the argument inside the home and the daughter’s account of what she saw before escaping to get help. Post-mortem examinations were to be conducted at Albany Medical Center.
In the immediate aftermath, the couple’s two younger children were at school, unaware of what had happened that morning. Authorities said all three children were placed in the care of family members, with grandparents stepping in as the adults who would now have to steady everything that had suddenly come undone.
Away from the crime scene, the portrait of Barnes that emerged was of someone who had been building a life around care and perseverance. Barnes had recently completed nursing school and had begun working as a registered nurse at Glens Falls Hospital, where co-workers described a compassionate presence and a determination that seemed rooted in doing right by the children. Friends and colleagues organized community support for the children, including fundraising aimed at helping provide stability and future opportunities after the loss.
