Document: KY woman who killed husband, sister struggled with mental health issues

A Kentucky woman police say killed her husband and sister before being shot and killed by her brother last week suffered with mental health problems, according to a court motion filed nearly 15 years ago.

The document was part of a divorce action that Angela Gosser filed against her husband, Larry V. Gosser, in October 2009.

In mid-December 2009, Larry Gosser’s attorney filed a motion for Gosser to have emergency custody of the couple’s 14-year-old son, alleging that Angela Gosser had hosted a “drinking party” with minors present.

On another occasion, their son said Angela Gosser kept slumping over the steering wheel while driving on the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway, the motion alleged.

Larry Gosser said in an affidavit he believed his estranged wife’s “mental status is deteriorating as it has in the past.”

“Angela suffers from clinically diagnosed mental disorders” and had been hospitalized for suicide thoughts and attempts, according to the motion and affidavit.

The documents did not specify what conditions Gosser allegedly had.

The motion said Angela Gosser was prescribed medication for her conditions, but had failed to use it properly at times.

A judge granted temporary sole custody to Larry Gosser, but the couple later reconciled and dropped the divorce in 2010, court records show.

There are no public court cases in Pulaski County, where the couple lived, since then to indicate any alleged mental-health problems of Angela Gosser.

Police believe Angela Gosser, 50, shot and killed Larry Gosser, 73, a retired state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources officer, at their secluded log home in Pulaski County, near the Russell County line, on May 3.

Their son found Larry Gosser’s body, according to Pulaski County Sheriff Bobby Jones.

When officers arrived, the couple’s son said he suspected his mother had shot his father, and that she might be headed to Russell County to hurt other people, Jones said.

Jones’ office alerted the the Russell County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police to be on the lookout for a Ford F-150 pickup truck Angela Gosser was believed to be driving.

Before police could locate her, however, officers found Gosser’s sister, 57-year-old Jennifer Wilson, dead in her Toyota Camry on Hammond Road in Russell County.

The investigation showed Gosser encountered her sister on the road and shot multiple times into her car, hitting Wilson in the head, state police said.

Gosser then went to the home of her brother, Darryl Wilson, 58, near Jamestown and forced her way inside, state police said.

The two apparently exchanged gunfire, leaving Angela Gosser dead and Wilson with life-threatening injuries, state police said.

Information was not available on Wilson’s condition this week.

Family members of Larry and Angela Gosser declined comment on the case.

Jones, the Pulaski County sheriff, said detectives are investigating the motive for the shooting there. Trooper Jonathan Houk, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police, said there was information to release on a motive in the Russell County shootings.

Larry and Angela Gosser married in February 1994 and their son was born later that year, according to the court record.

Angela Gosser filed a domestic violence petition in October 2009 and filed for divorce soon after.

She said in the domestic-violence petition that Larry Gosser said he would kill her after she confronted him about illegally confiscating guns from hunters when he was a state officer.

Gosser often played with guns and said he would shoot her with a shotgun because it couldn’t be traced, Angela Gosser said in the petition.

“I have finally gotten the nerve and the strength to leave. I am terrified,” Angela Gosser wrote in the petition.

The next month, in November 2009, the couple’s daughter said in a domestic-violence petition of her own that Angela Gosser had threatened to hurt her.

The petition noted the parents were going through a divorce and said Angela Gosser had told her daughter “if I tell the things she has done then I will pay.”

A judge ultimately dismissed the daughter’s petition, according to the court record. A judge also dismissed Angela Gosser’s petition against her husband in early November 2009.

The next month, Larry Gosser’s attorney filed the motion for him to have sole custody of the couple’s son, who was then 14.

A judge had initially awarded Angela Gosser temporary custody after the divorce was filed, but Larry Gosser’s motion said circumstances had changed “such that the child’s present environment endangers seriously his physical, mental, moral and emotional health.”

The motion cited the allegation that Angela Gosser had a party with drinking while miners were present and had apparently driven while impaired.

The teen was “visibly shaken and upset” after the driving incident, Larry Gosser said in an affidavit.

The motion said Angela Gosser had a history of abusing prescription medication.

A judge dismissed the divorce in May 2010 after Larry Gosser’s attorney filed a motion saying the couple had reconciled, according to the court record.

Cases of three or more family members being shot and killed don’t happen often in Kentucky, but there have been several other examples.

In February 2018, for instance, a Johnson County man who had struggled with drug addiction shot and killed his parents, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother before killing himself, police said.

In February 2015, police said a juvenile boy from Corbin shot and killed three family members before fleeing to Baltimore, where he was killed in a shootout with police.

And in January 2017, a Whitley County woman was charged with killing her husband and two daughters, whose bodies were found in their beds.

Courtney Taylor, now 48, pleaded guilty and is serving a sentence of life without parole, according to the court record and the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

About the family

Jennifer Wilson was a homemaker and is survived by a daughter, two sons, her brother and two grandchildren, according to her obituary.

Larry Gosser is survived by three daughters, two sons and several other family members, including 12 grandchildren, according to his obituary.

Gosser earned the Shikar Safari International Officer of the Year Award while with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He helped spearhead the department’s K-9 program and was instrumental in the reintroduction and repopulation of elk and wild turkey in Eastern Kentucky, according to his obituary.

“He was an avid fisherman and hunter who loved the outdoors, loved his animals, and most of all, loved spending time with his family and friends,” his obituary said.

Angela Gosser’s obituary said she was a homemaker and is survived by a daughter, her brother and four grandchildren.

The obituary did not list her son among survivors.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental-health problems several agencies offer help, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, The National Institute of Mental Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which has a directory of crisis providers, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.