On the morning of October 28, 2019, David Flick, a 59-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally shot in the parking lot of his Overland Park, Kansas, business, Terra Technologies. He had just dropped his two young sons off at school and arrived at the Deer Creek Office Center where his environmental consulting firm was located. Officers responded to the scene around 8:15 a.m.
and found Flick deceased beside his pickup truck.
The investigation quickly led police to identify a suspect, 60-year-old Scott MacDonald of Cass County, Missouri. Hours after Flick's death, law enforcement officers in Clay County, Missouri, conducted a traffic stop on an SUV matching the description of a vehicle seen at the homicide scene. As deputies approached the vehicle, the sole occupant, identified as MacDonald, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Inside MacDonald's vehicle, authorities discovered a note addressed to Flick which indicated premeditation.
The motive for the murder-suicide was connected to a prolonged and contentious custody battle between Flick and a woman with whom MacDonald was in a relationship. Court records revealed that a judge had previously ordered that the child involved in the custody case was to have no contact with MacDonald during the mother's parenting time. Flick had reportedly expressed concerns for his safety due to threats made by the woman and MacDonald's violent criminal past. In 1986, MacDonald had been sentenced to prison for the first-degree assault of his own mother. Law enforcement officials stated that they were not actively seeking any other suspects in connection with Flick's murder. The woman involved in the custody dispute was not considered a suspect, though she declined to be interviewed by police following the incident.
