(eerie music)
(woman yelling)
- [911 Operator] Hello?
911.
(woman yelling)
- [Narrator] Every family has disagreements.
Most fights between family members are mundane
and easily moved past.
But others are more troubling
and have dire and disturbing consequences.
(gun shoots)
What is up, EWU crew?
Today we are covering a case about tragedy,
love gone wrong, and family dysfunctions that turned deadly.
When Christy first met Jason Sheats,
she knew that he was meant to be the love of her life.
They were quite young at the time
as they both grew up only 15 minutes away from one another.
Christy was born and raised in Decatur, Alabama,
and Jason lived and attended high school nearby in Trinity.
Both friends of Christy and Jason attest
that when their two worlds collided,
there was no going back.
Christy and Jason were simply meant to be together.
And so not long after their first meeting,
Christy and Jason began dating.
As per any good love story,
the two fell hard and fast for each other
and both dreamed of their future life together.
Eventually, Jason proposed to Christy
and the two were married marking the beginning
of the next chapter of their love story.
Little did they know
that the love they shared was far too good to be true.
Not long after getting married,
the Sheats started a family of their own.
Christy and Jason welcomed their two daughters,
Madison and Taylor, into the world five years apart,
though the two girls remained close
during and after their childhood,
despite their age difference.
During the most developmental years of the girls' lives
Christy and Jason decided to move
to a quaint suburb in Houston.
Christy Sheats was an avid Facebook user
especially when it came to posting pictures
of her and her family.
Even when times were tough,
Christy was always adamant on maintaining the curated image
associated with her seemingly happy family.
Taylor and Madison's lives were well-documented
to say the least and we're often plastered
all over Christy's Facebook wall for others to see.
Their youngest daughter, Madison,
loved babysitting part-time
and took her high school academics seriously,
while their eldest daughter Taylor was a full-time teacher
at a local child daycare center who had every desire
to become a professional artist.
Together, the two appeared to be well behaved children
who loved their parents dearly.
Everyone who knew her understood
that Christy believed her life's mission
was to be the kindest mother she could be.
And friends of the family knew Jason
as a loving devoted father and husband.
Unfortunately, sometimes love isn't enough.
In early 2012, Christy's beloved grandfather passed away
sending Christy into a state of depression
unlike anything she had ever experienced before.
Her grandfather had been one of her idols in life
and had helped shape her into the woman she was as an adult.
His loss cut deep for Christy
because it was like losing a part of herself.
If Christy believed that her grandfather's death
was the worst form of loss she would ever experience,
she realized all too soon
that she had been completely wrong.
Before the grieving wounds from her grandfather's death
could properly heal, Christy's mother passed away
just a few months after her grandfather had.
The combination of losing two of the people
she had loved the most in the world
was too much for Christy to handle and cope with.
Her mother was one of her best friends,
someone she could confide in and reveal all her secrets to.
Both of these deaths sent Christy into a spiral of sorts.
One that resulted in her depression worsening
at her relationships with family and friends
growing more strain as the months passed by.
Over the course of four years
following the deaths of her grandfather and mother,
Christy became unrecognizable to those closest to her.
Her moods changed frequently, her appetite was non-existent
and she even attempted to take her own life
on three separate occasions.
Though her attempts to do so
were thwarted by her husband's intervention,
Christy was nonetheless suffering in a way
that no one around her seemed to understand,
not even her own family.
Dealing with death is a complex experience
that is often felt in completely different ways
by different individuals.
Unfortunately, for Christy time did not help
to heal her wounds.
When Christy's grandfather and mother
had first passed away, Jason tried to console his wife
to the best of his ability.
In many ways, Christy felt as though Jason
could not comprehend the constant pain she was in
or the way that she mourned
as a result of losing such a meaningful people in her life.
By June of 2016, Christy and Jason were ready
to call it quits on their relationship
after 20 years of marriage.
Christy believed that Jason was disregarding her feelings,
while Jason felt as though Christy was making it impossible
for him to get through to her.
After endless arguments
and a noticeable lack of affection between the two,
their marriage had soured to the point of no return.
Throughout their relationship, Christy never had a history
of being violent or unstable.
However, after her mother and grandfather's death,
something inside of her seemed to break.
Christy had been in and out of mental health facilities
on three separate occasions.
And her family had even become accustomed
to making service calls for authorities
to come to their home
in fear that Christy would do something to harm herself.
Christy had been taking several different medications
for depression and anxiety.
Though no one but Christy knows
just how strictly she may have actually been following
her medication regimen.
Despite the resources at her fingertips,
nothing seemed to help Christy.
Jason said that Christy would often drink heavily to cope
and alcohol could not have mixed well
with any medications she was taking.
Christy felt all alone in the world
with no one to understand her.
On the afternoon of June 24th, 2016
Christy Sheats made an irrevocable decision
that would alter the course of her life forever,
as well as that of those around her.
A few days earlier, Christy had gotten into an argument
with her and Jason's eldest daughter, Taylor,
who was planning to get married to her fiance
just days later.
During the argument, Christy stated
that she intended to ground Taylor
and prevent her from seeing her fiance.
Jason had overheard and come to Taylor's defense,
insisting that Christy could not punish
her 22-year-old daughter in such a patronizing way
just days before her wedding.
Christy was noticeably enraged by the course of the argument
and was set off even further
when Jason refused to take her side.
Ultimately, when Christy stormed off,
Jason did not think much of it.
Little did he know the horror that would occur.
A few days later, Christy notified Jason and the girls
that they would all be having a family meeting
and sit down to discuss a few things
that were on Christy's mind.
Going into the meeting, Jason assumed
that Christy wanted to address the fact
that the two of them were planning on getting a divorce,
as they hadn't told Taylor and Madison yet,
or perhaps she wanted to follow up
on the argument she and Taylor had earlier.
Unfortunately, nothing could have prepared Jason
for what Christy had planned.
As the family sat down for their discussion,
they noticed something was particularly off
with their mother.
Before Christy spoke, Jason braced himself
for what was likely going to be an emotional conversation.
He prepared to comfort his daughters
over the matter if need be.
Jason expected that Christy
would begin the conversation directly,
avoiding any unnecessary tiptoeing around the subject.
But instead Christy pulled out a gun.
In that moment Jason understood
that the meeting had nothing to do with their divorce
and everything to do with Christy reaching a breaking point.
What came next shocked everyone.
Jason frozen in horror watched as Christy pointed the gun,
one she had gotten from her grandfather,
not at him but directly at their daughter Taylor.
And then she fired.
Jason jumped up and rushed to his eldest daughter,
while shouting for Madison to run for the front door.
Jason threw himself over Taylor
and screamed in shock at Christy.
He desperately tried to pull Taylor up
and get her away from the nightmare
occurring in the foyer of his home.
Instead of escaping, Madison managed to call 911
in the midst of the chaos.
But just before Madison could make it out the door,
Christy managed to fire another shot
directly at her youngest daughter.
Though the 911 called did connect,
the dispatcher was unable
to have a conversation with Madison.
Screams on the other end of the line can be heard
as Jason, Madison and Taylor
begged Christy not to shoot at them anymore.
Just a forewarning: the 911 call you are about to hear
may be disturbing for some viewers
as the strain of the victims' voices is evident throughout.
- [911 Operator] Fort Bend 911, do you need-
- [Christy] I told you-
- [Jason] Please forgive me, I'm sorry.
- [Girl] Please don't shoot.
(woman screaming)
- [Jason] Please, don't. I'm sorry.
- [Woman] It's not okay!
- [Jason] I'll promise you, whatever you want, I will-
- [Woman] No!
- [Narrator] Madison struggled through the front door,
but she collapsed on the welcome mat
and drew her last breath.
Taylor and Jason managed to run
into the middle of the street in front of the house
by the time Christy caught up with them.
At this point during the attack,
Taylor was also able to attempt a 911 call
in which more screaming is heard
before Taylor's cries are stifled and the call ends.
- [911 Operator] Hello?
Do you know the address?
Ma'am?
- [Taylor] (indistinct) me.
- [Narrator] As Jason braced for a bullet to hit him,
he watched as Christy, once again, fired at Taylor.
Then she turned back toward the front door of the home
the two shared for years and went inside.
Jason and the injured Taylor managed to make it
to the end of the cul-de-sac in Christy's absence
and was relieved to learn
that a few of their neighbors had called the police.
After hearing the gunshots.
The sudden war zone on their quiet neighborhood street
was absolutely terrifying to those in the area.
One neighbor reported hearing Jason shout out the plea,
"Don't do this, they're our kids."
Another neighbor who made the 911 call
can be heard explaining to the dispatcher
that Christy appeared to have gone back inside
to reload her gun.
- [Neighbor] She's going inside the house now.
Hopefully not getting any more bullets.
Because it looks like she's gonna look for more bullets.
- [911 Operator] Okay. All right.
Stay on the line.
- [Neighbor] She's coming back again.
She's coming back again.
Apparently she has bullets now.
- [911 Operator] Okay.
- [Narrator] As Christy Sheats exited the house once more,
intent on firing another round of bullets into her family,
police were already making their way down the cul-de-sac.
Ignoring the looming presence of police officers
and detectives alike, Christy shot Taylor once more
before turning her attention to the wide-eyed cops.
- [911 Operator] Stay on the line.
- [Neighbor] Oh, she shot her again. She shot her again.
- [911 Operator] She shot her again?
- [Neighbor] Yes, from the back. She's starting to run.
- [Narrator] Officers surrounded any possible escape paths,
preventing Christy from running away
from the brutal crime scene she had created.
The police promptly ordered Christy to drop her weapon
before anyone else got hurt.
Christy Sheats simply smiled, ignored the order,
and eerily locked eyes with her husband.
Before she could finish whatever thought
had been going through her brain at that moment,
an officer fired exactly one shot at Christine
killing her where she stood.
- [Neighbor] I can hear bullets
and she's laying down on the floor now.
- [911 Operator] I'm so sorry you had to see that, sir.
I'm sorry you had to see that.
- [Narrator] Taylor Sheats was quickly airlifted
to Memorial Hermann hospital
in the hopes that she could be spared,
despite having sustained three gunshot wounds
in various parts of her body.
Unfortunately, Taylor was past the point of saving.
With one fell swoop, three fourths of the Sheats family
were completely wiped out
in one unthinkable series of events.
Taylor had graduated with honors
from Lone Star College-CyFair
just a year prior to her murder.
Madison was on track to enter her senior year
at Seven Lakes High School.
And Jason was left to mourn his entire family
because of Christy's irrevocable choice.
Perhaps the most peculiar part of Christy's attack
on her own family is that she had reportedly had ample time
to open fire on Jason.
Yet, she had intentionally chosen not to.
Though that choice seemed strange at first,
it was nonetheless deliberate.
The seemingly perfect family Jason had once been a part of
was reduced to nothing but himself.
Jason understood that this had been
Christy's goal all along: to make him suffer.
Christy had always felt as though Jason was never able
to understand the unbearable loss she had experienced
in the wake of the deaths of her grandfather and mother.
So, in the most twisted way,
she decided to make him understand what it felt like
to lose the people you love the most.
On that fateful day in June of 2016,
Jason Sheats became a victim of an unthinkable crime,
one that caused him his entire family
and one that he's going to have to live with
for the rest of his life.
Jason had to be taken to the hospital after the incident
not to be treated for an injury
but because he had been so broken by what happened.
Christy Sheats ultimately got what she wanted
out of the murder of her own two daughters
and did not have to live
to face the consequences of her actions.
Perhaps the only closure Jason will ever have
is knowing that Christy can never take anyone else from him.