On the morning of October 18, 1984, a tragic sequence of events unfolded at a residence in Evansville, Indiana, that would leave a community in shock. Candace Day returned to her home around 10:00 a.m. after finishing a shift at the post office, expecting a normal mid-morning atmosphere. Instead, she entered a silent house and discovered a horrific scene in the living room, where her husband, James Alan Day, was seated in a chair, deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
This grim discovery was only the beginning of the nightmare that awaited her as she moved further into the home.
Upon checking the bedrooms, Candace found that her six children had all been killed in their beds. Among them was 8-year-old Stephan Alexander Day, a White male, who had been shot once in the head while he slept. His siblings—15-year-old Michael, 14-year-old Bartholomew, 9-year-old John, 7-year-old Christopher, and 6-year-old Laura—suffered the same fate. Investigators determined that the shootings likely occurred earlier that morning, sometime after Candace had left for work before dawn. The weapon used was a large-caliber handgun that had been modified to fire smaller ammunition, which reportedly suppressed the noise of the gunshots, preventing neighbors or the other children from waking during the violence.
Police investigation revealed that James Alan Day, aged 36, was the sole perpetrator of the mass murder-suicide. There was a documented history of domestic turmoil within the family; the couple had experienced marital difficulties, and Candace had previously filed for divorce and a restraining order, though they had reconciled months prior to the incident. Authorities noted that James had displayed violent behavior in the past, including threatening his wife with a firearm. Despite these warning signs, there was no specific note left behind to explain his final actions that morning, leaving the exact trigger for the rampage a matter of speculation centered on family strife and mental instability.
Due to the death of James Alan Day at the scene, there were no arrests made in connection with the murders of Stephan and his siblings. The case was closed as a murder-suicide, meaning no suspects were pursued, and no trials or convictions took place. The legal resolution was immediate and final, as the person responsible had already executed his own sentence before law enforcement could intervene. The devastating loss of the entire generation of Day children remains one of the most severe incidents of family violence in the history of Evansville.
