In the summer of 1999, in the Atlanta suburb of Stockbridge, the life of 11-year-old Matthew David Barton, a white male, was tragically cut short. On the night of July 28th, Matthew and his 8-year-old sister, Mychelle, were bludgeoned to death with a hammer as they slept in their beds. Their father, 44-year-old Mark Orrin Barton, was the one who ended their lives.
The night before, he had also murdered his 27-year-old wife, Leigh Ann Vandiver, in the same brutal manner.
After the murders of his family, Mark Barton left notes detailing his actions. He then drove to two day-trading firms in Atlanta on July 29th and opened fire, killing nine people and injuring thirteen others. The motive for this horrific spree was believed to be the significant financial losses he had recently suffered from day trading. Barton had reportedly lost $105,000 in the month prior to the killings.
Following the shootings, a massive manhunt for Mark Barton ensued. As law enforcement closed in on him at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia, Barton took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The discovery of the bodies of his wife and children at their home revealed the full, devastating extent of his rampage. In a note left at the scene, Barton claimed he killed his children to spare them a 'lifetime of pain.'
Mark Barton had also been a suspect in the 1993 bludgeoning deaths of his first wife, Debra Spivey, and her mother. Although he was never charged in that case, authorities still considered him a suspect. He denied his involvement in those deaths in the notes he left behind before his suicide.
