In the early morning hours of July 13, 2015, the quiet of a Granville Township, Pennsylvania neighborhood was shattered by the sound of gunshots. Responding to a 6:30 a.m. call, police arrived at a home on Fairway Place to a grim discovery. Outside the residence lay the body of 44-year-old Carol D. White. Inside, they found her 81-year-old mother, Floris C. Lewis, shot to death in her bed.
Both women, a mother and daughter, had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and their deaths were ruled a double homicide.
As the investigation began, two men who were present at the home when police arrived were taken into custody. These men were identified as Travis A. White, 35, and Henry A. White, 39, and they were initially held in the Mifflin County prison while the investigation continued. Later reports clarified the suspects as Travis White and Jason Kuhns. Travis White was the estranged husband of Carol White.
The investigation, which was eventually turned over to the Pennsylvania State Police, led to formal charges against both men in November 2015. Travis White was charged with two counts of homicide. Jason Kuhns faced charges of two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit homicide, burglary, and theft by unlawful taking. Both men had been incarcerated since their arrest in July and continued to be held without bail.
In October 2017, Travis A. White, then 37, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of his estranged wife and her mother. In court, he offered an apology, stating, 'There's nothing I could say to make this any better.' He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His plea was unexpected but brought a conclusion to the case, avoiding a lengthy trial and subsequent appeals. The plea also allowed him to receive mental health treatment while serving his sentence.
