On a September day in 2018, the quiet community of Dora, Alabama, was unsettled by a grim discovery. Under the Interstate 22 overpass at Exit 78, the bodies of 31-year-old Monica Cooper Graves and a 70-year-old man were found inside a pickup truck. Both had suffered fatal gunshot wounds.
Monica, a resident of the nearby town of Empire, was a White female whose life was abruptly cut short.
The man found with her was identified as John Allen Softley, a well-known figure in the area who served on the Parrish Town Council and worked as a part-time officer with the Jasper Police Department. Authorities confirmed that Graves and Softley were acquainted, though the full extent of their relationship was not publicly detailed.
The investigation that followed, led by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, pieced together the tragic sequence of events. The official ruling determined that Monica Graves' death was a homicide. Conversely, John Softley's death was ruled a suicide. Investigators concluded that Softley had shot and killed Graves before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide. As the perpetrator was deceased, the case was considered closed, leaving a community to grapple with the shocking loss of two of its members.
