Letha C. Pace, an 85-year-old woman, spent nearly her entire life rooted in the New Site community of Prentiss County, Mississippi. She was born on October 31, 1929, to Ed and Beulah Stacey Horn and was described in her obituary as a member of the Church of Christ, a woman of faith who centered her life around family and church. At the time of her death she was living at home in New Site, near Booneville, and was surrounded by a large family that included three daughters, two sons, a stepson,
her brother George Washington “G.W.” Horn, nineteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Funeral services for her were held on January 19, 2015, at McMillan Funeral Home in Booneville, with burial following at Siloam Cemetery.
On the night of Wednesday, January 14, 2015, that quiet home east of Booneville became the scene of a fatal shooting. Deputies from the Prentiss County Sheriff’s Office were called to the residence and found Letha Pace dead inside the house, where she had been shot, with local television reports specifying that she had been shot in the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound. The sheriff, Randy Tolar, later said he had known Pace throughout his career and had always had a friendly relationship with her, but he also acknowledged that deputies had been called to the home in the past for disturbances. He expressed regret that the tensions at that address had escalated into lethal violence.
Almost immediately, attention turned to her son, 54-year-old John Ed Inman, who lived in the home with her. Authorities stated that Inman was arrested at the scene the same night deputies discovered her body. Local news reports said he was accused of shooting his mother at their New Site residence, and he was initially held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder while awaiting his first court appearance. Two days later, on January 16, 2015, the Prentiss County Sheriff’s Office reported that Inman had appeared before Justice Court Judge Angela Pounds, who formally set his bond at $1,000,000; despite the bond being set, the sheriff’s office noted that he remained in custody.
Family members living nearby struggled to make sense of what had happened. G.W. Horn, Pace’s brother and a neighbor who lived down the road, told reporters that his sister and her son had lived together for years, and he emphasized that such long cohabitation between a mother and son suggested there must have been love between them, even if there had been disagreements. He said he had not known of any serious problems between them and described the killing as deeply upsetting and nerve-racking for him and the family. In public accounts in the days immediately following the shooting, investigators did not disclose a clear motive for the crime, and early coverage simply noted that there was “no word on a motive” while the investigation proceeded.
Over time, the case moved from the initial arrest in justice court to prosecution in circuit court. The National Gun Violence Memorial later listed Pace as having been “lost to gun violence” on January 14, 2015, in Booneville, Mississippi, reflecting that her death had been formally treated as a homicide by firearm and documented alongside other fatal shootings. Several years after the killing, the First Circuit District Attorney’s Office reported that John Ed Inman entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in connection with his mother’s death. In a public statement about recent prosecutions, the district attorney’s office recounted that Inman, then described again as 54 years old, had shot and killed his 85-year-old mother, Letha C. Pace, at their home east of Booneville in January 2015, and that he had entered his plea on an October 13, acknowledging his role in the killing. That plea brought the criminal case to a legal conclusion, formally tying the story of Letha Pace’s sudden, violent death to the actions of the son who had once shared her home in New Site.
