Robert Daigneau and the 1991 Harrodsburg Mass Murder
Background
Robert Daigneau was responsible for a mass shooting that killed four people in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on November 9, 1991. The attack developed from the collapse of his marriage to Donna Fitzgerald Daigneau, his 33-year-old estranged wife. Contemporary accounts described Robert as intensely jealous after Donna separated from him. He reportedly became convinced that she was romantically involved with someone else, although the people traveling with her on the night of the murders were acquaintances and relatives rather than participants in a planned romantic encounter.
The shooting occurred only weeks after Robert had been discharged from a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility in Togus, Maine. Court records later established that he left the facility on October 18, 1991, approximately three weeks before the killings. His treatment and discharge became subjects of later civil litigation, although no court proceeding could result in a criminal prosecution because Robert died by suicide shortly after committing the murders.
The Victims' Evening
On the evening of Saturday, November 9, 1991, Donna was traveling through Harrodsburg with five other people. The occupants included Palmer Lee Rousey, Palmer's wife Anna Rousey, Fred Marion "Junior" Alsman, Thomas Earl Bannister and Rita McGlone. The group was reportedly traveling to a restaurant when they realized that Robert was following them in his pickup truck.
Robert's presence caused immediate concern. The passengers apparently understood that his pursuit was connected to his anger over the separation from Donna. As he continued following their automobile, the group attempted to find police assistance. They drove toward the location of Harrodsburg's former police station and sounded the vehicle's horn in an effort to attract attention. The building, however, was no longer operating as the police station, and no officers were present to intervene.
The Shooting in Harrodsburg
Robert pulled his pickup truck near the victims' automobile. Armed with a .357 Magnum revolver, he got out and fired repeatedly into the occupied vehicle. Reports indicated that approximately six shots were discharged. The sudden attack left four of the six occupants fatally wounded.
Donna Daigneau, Palmer Rousey, Fred Alsman and Thomas Bannister were killed. Anna Rousey and Rita McGlone survived the shooting. The violence appears to have been directed primarily at Donna because of Robert's jealousy and inability to accept the separation, but he fired into a vehicle filled with people, killing three others who had become caught in the domestic dispute.
Donna was transported to the University of Kentucky's Albert B. Chandler Medical Center in Lexington. She was pronounced dead at approximately 10:02 p.m. The other victims were also confirmed dead following the attack. The shooting left families in Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri grieving relatives who had been killed during what had begun as an ordinary evening trip to a restaurant.
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