Utah lesbian murder suicide: Fransiska Dastrup kills girlfriend Richelle Horsley then self
Unified Police Department responded to a home in Taylorsville, Utah Thursday morning, but this time they discover the two woman residents dead. Police detailed how a history of calls led up to the shocking murder suicide case.
Richelle “Shelley” Horsley, 47, was been shot and killed in the driveway behind her home on Hard Rock Drive. Just feet away, police found the body of Fransiska Dastrup, 49, who they say shot and killed herself.
“I was stunned, just stunned,” said a neighbor to KUTV who did not want to be identified. She described Horsley, widely known as Shelley, as “very nice, very friendly, kept to herself.”
Horsley described herself as a proud lesbian and brain-cancer survivor on Facebook.
The couple lived together, but police admitted that they were called to the home on a report of an argument on May 18 and then again on May 29th, when Horsley said someone had tried to open a credit card in her name.
On June 5, police said they were notified that Dastrup had threatened suicide.
Then on June 15, she was cited for assaulting Horsley with her fist or open hand, which resulted in a court granting a temporary protective order, which should have barred Dastrup from having contact with Horsley.
That order was apparently never served. Issued on the June 15, police said they did not receive it until four days later, then tried several times to find Dastrup, to no avail.
Thursday morning, Dastrup apparently drove back to the house and hit Horsley’s vehicle behind the home.
Dastrup, said police, shot Horsley while she was still in her car, then ran a short distance away and shot herself.
While murder suicide may be rising in America, cases involving LGBT couples remains an extremely rare situation, particularly in Utah.