In a quiet Conroe neighborhood on March 16, 2026, a domestic dispute escalated into a tragic double homicide, claiming the life of 80-year-old Floris Ricks Wolford and her daughter. The violent sequence of events began in the afternoon when Stanley Earl Hardin, 57, drove his vehicle into a home on Shoreview Drive. Inside the residence were his estranged wife, Tara Hardin, 57, and her mother, Floris Wolford.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Tara Hardin placed a desperate 911 call, reporting that
her estranged husband was crashing his vehicle into the home. During the call, dispatchers heard the chilling sound of gunfire. When Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered the bodies of both women, who had sustained fatal gunshot wounds. Investigators believe that Tara Hardin had recently separated from her husband and had been staying with her mother for about a week.
After the shooting, Stanley Hardin fled the scene. He first went to his son's nearby residence and then to his own home on Ivy Lane. Law enforcement, anticipating a potential confrontation, set up a perimeter around his house. Following a conversation with a family member, Hardin surrendered to deputies without incident.
Stanley Earl Hardin, a military veteran with no known prior criminal history, was taken into custody and has been charged with capital murder. He is currently being held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has expressed its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the victims and is committed to seeking justice for the two women.
