Minnesota man murders ex-wife one week after she remarries, police say

A 64-year-old Minnesota planned to kill himself after murdering his wife, but turned himself in after a 10-hour standoff with police, authorities said.

According to authorities, Robert D. McCloud, 64, was charged with second-degree intentional murder in connection to the shooting on the morning of June 18 of his ex-wife, Lauri Deatherage, 48, in the home they once shared. Deatherage is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. 

Four days before she was shot, Deatherage was celebrating her new marriage to Billy Deatherage, 53, a fellow Air Force veteran with whom she reunited after decades apart, police said and reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Officials said the two met 30 years ago and reconnected as friends about four years ago. Billy proposed in the spring and they were married on June 13, which is Lauri’s birthday, authorities said.

According to police, McCloud mailed flash drives to family members before shooting Lauri, who divorced him three years ago.

Police said they watched the flash drives and saw McCloud saying he intended to kill himself and knew it was wrong to involve his ex-wife in his plot.

That did not stop him, as he went on to explain Lauri just remarried and he wasn’t going to let “that hillbilly” get all his stuff and his wife, Star Tribune reported.

According to authorities, police were asked to do a welfare check on Lauri, which is when they discovered her body on the floor of the master bedroom with one gunshot in the head.

Police said a witness reported McCloud had recently bought a gun and admitted going to his ex-wife’s house.

Officials said McCloud admitted to standing over Lauri while she was on the bed and shot her when she reached for the phone, as he believed she was going to call 911.

Police said they believed McCloud was going to shoot himself also, but after a 10-hour standoff with McCloud at his home, he turned himself in.

Inside his home, police said they found a loaded pistol, ammunition, a key to Lauri’s home and bloody clothes.