In what was meant to be a time of joyful anticipation, 45-year-old Violeta Isackov was tragically killed on the evening of Thursday, April 18, 2013, in a dress shop parking lot in Lower Southampton Township, Pennsylvania. She was with her 16-year-old daughter for a final fitting of her wedding dress, as she was planning to remarry that coming Sunday. The promising new chapter of her life was violently cut short by her ex-husband, 50-year-old Kenneth Philipp.
Philipp ambushed Isackov and her daughter in their car, firing a 12-gauge shotgun into the vehicle at point-blank range. Isackov suffered at least one fatal shotgun wound to the torso. Her daughter, who was in the car with her, was injured by flying glass and was treated for injuries to her hands. After the shooting, Philipp fled the scene in his Lincoln Town Car.
A police officer spotted Philipp's vehicle and pulled him over. Philipp exited his car and opened fire on the officer. The officer, though hit, was protected by his bulletproof vest and returned fire, killing Philipp at the scene. It was later determined that the officer's actions were justified.
The investigation revealed a history of threatening behavior from Philipp. He had a protection from abuse order against him and had recently been released from prison on April 2 of that year for violating that order in November. Court records indicated a past filled with hostility, including pleading guilty to threatening his first wife's lawyer in 2005 and an arrest for bringing a knife to Isackov's home. The firearm he used in the murder-suicide had been legally purchased by his father in 1981.
