In the quiet, tight-knit community of Belfry, Montana, a tragedy unfolded that would shatter the town's sense of peace. On April 5, 2016, Karen Hill-LeCou, a 54-year-old White/Caucasian woman, was found deceased in her home. Her death was not an isolated incident but part of a horrific triple homicide that also claimed the lives of her sister, 72-year-old Sharon Hill-Lamb, and her brother-in-law, 76-year-old Lloyd Lamb.
The cause of their deaths was later determined to be from gunshot wounds.
The grim discovery was made after a concerned neighbor contacted the police, having not seen or heard from the residents for a couple of days. This was unusual in a small town where everyone knew each other, and the silence from the house was unsettling. When authorities entered the residence, they found the bodies of Karen and her family members. The news of the violent deaths sent shockwaves through the community of roughly 200 people, a place where such violent crimes were virtually unheard of.
Suspicion quickly fell upon Karen's husband, Robert James LeCou, who was 39 years old at the time. He had been living in the Belfry home with his wife and her sister and brother-in-law, reportedly to help care for the elderly couple. In the days following the discovery of the bodies, LeCou was not at the residence and a search for him was initiated. The investigation led authorities across state lines to Nine Mile Falls, Washington, a community just outside of Spokane.
Three days after the bodies were found, Robert LeCou was located and arrested at his mother's house in Washington. He was taken into custody without incident and subsequently charged with three counts of deliberate homicide for the deaths of his wife, Karen Hill-LeCou, her sister, and her brother-in-law. It was later revealed that LeCou had a prior criminal history, having previously served time in prison for his involvement in a fatal beating in Texas. In June of 2017, Robert LeCou faced trial for the triple murder that had so deeply impacted the small town of Belfry.
