Lorelei Marsh King, a 41-year-old White/Caucasian female, died after a shooting on March 24, 2023, in Sutton, West Virginia, in a case that West Virginia State Police said appeared to be a murder-suicide rooted in domestic violence. The violence unfolded at a residence in the Edgewood Acres area of Sutton, where authorities and emergency responders were called after a 911 report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found Lorelei King and 63-year-old Leo Raymond King on the porch of the residence, both suffering from gunshot wounds and both in critical condition.
First responders, including West Virginia State Police and Braxton County deputies, began giving aid at the scene while emergency medical services were called in. Lorelei and Leo were transported for medical treatment, but both later died from their injuries. Obituary information connected to the family reported that they passed away on Friday, March 24, 2023, at Braxton Memorial Hospital in Gassaway.
Lorelei was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia, and was described in memorial information as a tree trimmer for Penn Line and a member of Long Run Baptist Church.
Investigators publicly described the shooting as stemming from a domestic violence situation. The early findings released by West Virginia State Police indicated that the incident appeared to be a murder-suicide, though reports did not describe a separate search for an outside suspect. Because both people found at the scene died, there were no reported arrests, trial proceedings, or convictions connected to the case in the available public reports. The suspected assailant was identified in news coverage as Leo Raymond King through the murder-suicide classification, but authorities did not report charges because he also died from the shooting.
In the days after the shooting, the case was remembered not only as a police investigation but as a family tragedy. Lorelei and Leo were mourned together in joint memorial services held in Sutton in April 2023. Their obituary noted surviving children, grandchildren, and relatives, leaving behind a family forced to absorb the sudden loss of two lives in one violent incident. The public account of Lorelei King's death remains that she was fatally shot during a domestic violence-related incident at Edgewood Acres in Sutton, and that West Virginia State Police treated the case as an apparent murder-suicide rather than an unsolved homicide involving an at-large suspect.
