On December 12, 2025, Donald Webb, a 51-year-old man from Carthage, Missouri, was fatally shot inside an apartment in the 400 block of West Fir Road. Carthage police officers were sent to the apartment complex at approximately 6:22 p.m. after what was initially reported as a medical call. Inside a second-floor apartment, first responders found Webb suffering from a gunshot wound.
Emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation quickly focused on Webb’s girlfriend, Candida Hudson of Carthage. Hudson told investigators that Webb had shot himself following an argument between the couple. According to the account she gave police, she returned home from work at about 5:45 p.m. and found Webb intoxicated. She said Webb had recently lost his jobs and had been keeping belongings at her apartment, and she described continuing disagreements between them over his alcohol use. During the argument, Hudson said, Webb threatened to kill himself.
Hudson told investigators that Webb went onto the balcony to smoke and that she temporarily locked the balcony door before eventually allowing him back inside. She said Webb then picked up a firearm from a coffee table, removed it from its holster and placed the weapon against his head. Hudson claimed that she grabbed the firearm with both hands in an effort to stop him, but that Webb pulled it away from her, moved to the opposite end of the couch and fired the fatal shot. She denied owning or possessing firearms herself, although she acknowledged knowing that Webb had previously brought multiple guns into the residence.
After the shooting, Hudson said she immediately called 911 and followed instructions to check Webb for signs of life. She also said she attempted to move him from the couch to the floor so CPR could be performed but was unable to move him because of his size. Investigators, however, reported finding physical evidence that they believed did not support her account and concluded there was probable cause to believe the shooting was not a suicide.
Among the evidence described in the probable cause statement was gunshot residue testing. Hudson consented to the testing, and authorities reported that residue was detected on her left hand. Investigators said Webb had no gunshot residue on either hand, which they considered inconsistent with Hudson’s claim that he had fired the weapon himself. Photographs of Hudson’s hands also reportedly showed visible blood.
Investigators also examined blood on the firearm. According to the probable cause statement reported by local news outlets, blood was found on the right side of the gun’s frame but not on the left side. Authorities interpreted that evidence as indicating that the person who fired the weapon was using the gun left-handed. Police cited this finding, together with the gunshot-residue results, as evidence contradicting Hudson’s version of events.
Authorities identified other elements of Hudson’s account that they considered inconsistent. Investigators questioned her assertion that Webb had been able to pull the weapon away from her with one hand, and they also questioned her statement that she was physically unable to move him from the couch afterward. The probable cause statement additionally described investigators’ observations of Hudson’s demeanor following the shooting, although such observations by themselves do not establish guilt.
Following the investigation at the apartment, Hudson was arrested. The Jasper County Prosecutor’s Office charged her with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with Webb’s death. She was initially reported as being held in the Jasper County Jail without bond. The allegations against Hudson remain accusations unless and until they are proven in court.
At the time of the homicide arrest, Hudson was already facing an unrelated criminal case. She had been free on a $50,000 bond while awaiting proceedings on allegations of third-degree domestic assault and child abuse involving her teenage daughter. Authorities alleged in that separate case that Hudson pushed her daughter from a residence and choked her. Those allegations are separate from Webb’s death and do not establish that Hudson committed the homicide.
The murder case continued into 2026. In February, Hudson waived her preliminary hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court. She was then bound over for trial on the charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action, meaning the prosecution could proceed with the case in circuit court without a preliminary-hearing determination after her waiver. An arraignment was scheduled for March 9, 2026, in Division 2.
Publicly available reporting located through August 2026 establishes Hudson’s arrest, the charges against her and her being bound over for trial, but does not show a reported conviction, acquittal or final trial disposition in Webb’s case. The most recent substantive reports continue to describe the prosecution as pending, with Hudson accused of intentionally firing the shot that killed Webb while her account to investigators maintained that Webb had taken his own life.
