Diane Akins, a 66-year-old white woman from Scotland, South Dakota, was caught in a burst of violence on the evening of November 9, 2021, when gunfire erupted inside a home in the small Bon Homme County town. Deputies responding to reports of shots fired arrived to a scene that investigators later described as domestic-related: multiple people had been shot, and the house that should have been safe had turned into a triage point of panic and shock.
Akins was among those struck; she was transported for emergency care but ultimately died from her injuries.
Authorities identified Francis Lange as the shooter and said the attack targeted his former girlfriend, Angela Monclova, at her residence. Two people were found dead at the scene, and Akins later succumbed at a hospital, making three deaths in total. Two others survived with serious gunshot wounds, including a 5-year-old child. In the immediate aftermath, investigators recovered a handgun nearby, and Lange was arrested later that night as the case quickly escalated from a frantic search for answers into a high-stakes homicide investigation.
Prosecutors filed sweeping charges: three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths, along with counts tied to the people who survived the shooting. The case moved through South Dakota's courts over the months that followed, with the state emphasizing the scale of harm—an entire household fired upon—while survivors and the broader community lived with the injuries, grief, and fear left behind.
In 2023, the case reached its turning point when Lange changed his plea, admitting guilt while entering a “guilty but mentally ill” plea to three murder counts and two aggravated assault counts. At sentencing in Bon Homme Circuit Court, a judge imposed three life sentences to be served consecutively, with additional consecutive prison terms for the assault convictions, ensuring Lange would spend the rest of his life in prison.
