Update: Boyfriend Kills 3 Members of Missouri Family and Their Dog

Prosecutors provided details about the murders of three women in their Kansas City, Missouri, home earlier this week and the subsequent arrest of the man believed responsible

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said in a news conference on Monday that 50-year-old Armando Navarro Jr. had been charged with multiple crimes in the deaths of 49-year-old Jodie Hopcus, her 24-year-old daughter Hailey Hopcus, and her 73-year old mother Sherri Duncan.

Navarro also shot at Jodie Hopcus’s other daughter, who also lived at the home and was not named, and killed the family dog, Zahnd said.

“This is a horrific crime,” the prosecutor told reporters. “It’s one of the worst crimes that I’ve prosecuted in my 22 years of prosecution.”

Police were called to the home shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday and found the three women dead from gunshot wounds, as CrimeOnline reported.

Zahnd said police got the call after the surviving victim fled to a neighbor’s house. She told investigators that prior to the shooting, her mother and Navarro, the mother’s boyfriend, had been arguing, with Jodie Hopcus ordering Navarro out of the house while he argued he had “no place to go.”

After about an hour of arguing, Navarro came out of his room with a small handgun and began shooting, striking Jodie Hopcus in the arm. He fired until the gun ran out of bullets, then grabbed a knife, while Hopcus tried to shield the surviving daughter with her own body.

Navarro left the room and “returned with a larger firearm,” holding it under his chin as if he were going to shot himself, Zahnd said. When Jodie Hopcus tried to flee, he “shot her in the face.”

The surviving sister said she believed Duncan, her grandmother, had already been shot because she saw her lying on the floor unresponsive. Hailey Hopcus, her sister, told her to get out of the house and as she did, Navarro shot the sister and fired at her, apparently only taking out a chunk of her hair as she ran.

She also told police she heard Navarro calling her name, then heard a vehicle start up, and saw her mother’s Ford Expedition leave and drive away.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found all three women dead along with the dog.

Police tracked Jodie Hopcus’s Expedition to Abilene, Kansas, about 150 miles away, and contacted Dickinson County deputies about it, only to learn that they had already been contact with the vehicle and its driver, who was apparently calling a tow truck after getting the SUV stuck in a ditch. Deputies went back to the scene with the Kansas Highway Patrol, Zahnd said, and arrested Navarro. They found a revolver and five spent shell casings in the vehicle.

At some point Sunday morning, the prosecutor said, a man identifying himself as Navarro’s son called Kansas City police, telling asking them to check on the family because his father had called him at about 2 a.m. and said he had “killed them all.”

Navarro is being held in Kansas without bond pending extradition to Missouri, where he will face three counts of first-degree murder, four counts of armed criminal action, and one count each of assault and animal abuse.

Zahnd said his office would determine at a later date whether to seek the death penalty.

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[Featured image: Hailey Hopcus and Jodie Hopcus/Facebook. Inset: Armando Navarro Jr/Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office]