Teresa Marie Howe, an 83-year-old woman from Azle, Texas, was killed on July 16, 2026, in a double homicide that also claimed the life of her daughter, Traci Richelle Gordon. Howe had been born June 23, 1943, in Meridian, Texas, and spent her early childhood in Morgan before her family moved to Fort Worth in 1955. She later graduated from Paschal High School, married Richard Edwin Howe, and raised three children. Her husband died in 2025 after more than six decades of marriage.
The deaths were discovered after Azle police officers and firefighters were dispatched at about 9:30 a.m. to a home in the 200 block of Stewart Bend Court for what authorities described as a suspicious situation. Because of the circumstances surrounding the call, officers entered the residence to check on the occupants. Inside, they found Howe and her daughter dead from apparent gunshot wounds. Authorities identified the victims as a mother and daughter, with later reporting identifying them as Howe and 59-year-old Traci Gordon.
Investigators quickly focused on Traci Gordon's husband, Joseph Morris Gordon of Fort Worth. The Azle Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division worked with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers, using evidence recovered from the home together with information from FLOCK license-plate-reading cameras. Police said that evidence led investigators to identify Gordon as the person responsible for killing his wife and his mother-in-law. Authorities have not publicly disclosed a motive or provided a detailed reconstruction of what occurred inside the home before the shootings.
Texas Rangers arrested Joseph Gordon on July 16, the same day Howe and her daughter were discovered. He was taken to the Parker County Jail and faced two counts of capital murder. Police characterized the case as an active investigation and initially declined to release further details concerning the shootings, the evidence recovered at the scene, or circumstances leading up to the killings.
As of the most recent publicly available reporting located through August 11, 2026, Gordon's arrest and the two capital-murder charges remained the principal reported developments in the criminal case. No reliable online source located for this synopsis reported that a trial had taken place, that Gordon had been convicted, or that a sentence had been imposed. The available reporting likewise did not establish that prosecutors had publicly announced a motive or disclosed whether they intended to seek the death penalty.
The deaths left Howe's family mourning two generations at once. Her obituary remembered her as a dependable and devoted mother and listed her surviving children Rick and Kristi, grandchildren Lauren, Dustin and Morgan, and other relatives. A memorial service honoring Howe was scheduled for August 8 at First Methodist Church of Azle, with the service also remembering her daughter Traci, whose death occurred in the same shooting.
