On a tragic Friday morning in the Midland City area of Alabama, 31-year-old Harleigh Michelle Dill, a White female, was found dead from a single gunshot wound to her upper body. The incident, which occurred on January 24, 2025, at the Summer Chase Trailer Park, set off a chain of events that would lead to a tense standoff and a murder charge. Harleigh, a mother of three, was discovered by law enforcement officers who were responding to a report of a firearm assault.
The investigation
quickly zeroed in on a suspect: 31-year-old Dustin Joe Rigsbee, who was identified as Harleigh's boyfriend. The initial alert to law enforcement reportedly came from Rigsbee's own mother, who called 911 to report that her son had shot his girlfriend. Rigsbee had allegedly confessed the shooting to a family member. At the time of the fatal shooting, three of Rigsbee's children and two of Harleigh's were present in the trailer.
Following the shooting, Rigsbee fled the scene with the children and went to his mother's home in Jack, Alabama. When law enforcement arrived, he escaped into the nearby woods, armed with an AR-15, a pistol, and wearing a bulletproof vest. This initiated an hours-long standoff with multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Coffee County Sheriff's Office and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency SWAT team. Crisis negotiators were able to make contact with Rigsbee and, after a prolonged negotiation, convinced him to surrender peacefully.
Dustin Joe Rigsbee, a former Marine who had been treated for PTSD, was arrested and charged with murder. He was booked into the Dale County Jail without bond. During a subsequent court hearing, his defense attorneys suggested the shooting may have been accidental, a claim prosecutors contested, citing his flight from the scene and the armed standoff as evidence of him being a flight risk. The court was to decide on the matter of bond. The community was left to mourn the loss of Harleigh Michelle Dill, with a GoFundMe campaign established to support her family during their time of grief.
