alicem
Tragically Alice is no longer with us. See below.
Investigators say a Seymour woman took her own life, and that of her handicapped daughter's in a tragic murder-suicide case in Sevier County.
The Sevier County Sheriff's Department responded early Sunday morning and found the two women--- and a note inside a car at Alice Neff's home in Seymour. Howard Olson, a neighbor to the 42 year old woman says late Saturday night, he heard pounding on his door. He went to answer, it was a once live-in boyfriend of Neff's, asking for a phone to call 9-1-1.
Olson says the man had lived with Neff in the past. He believed the couple had a falling out about a week ago.
That man opened the front door to the home and found several cats lying dead. He thought a natural gas leak was to blame.
But the source of the poison was the garage.
"And when the garage door opened, the car was running and he went up there and looked. Alice was in the front seat and Hillary was in the backseat. They were both gone," Olson said.
Hours later, the Sheriff's Department found a suicide note and both women dead from carbon monoxide inhalation inside.
"I just assume when she decided to do this, she couldn't bear the thought of anyone else taking care of Hillary so she included her, in her suicide," Olson said.
He says Neff treated her daughter well.
"Just like a little queen. She was her little queen," he said.
She refused to send her to a care facility and always seemed more than willing to take on some of the extra tasks associated with having a handicapped child.
"You feel so helpless because there is so little you can do."
Now, neighbors are left wondering if there was anything anyone could have done to prevent all this from happening.
