By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press Writer
SAVANNAH, Georgia- A man who killed himself in a standoff with Florida lawmen after leaving a trail of bloodshed across the southeast United States was grappling with financial and romantic turmoil, authorities said.
Seven sheriff’s deputies opened fire on Tom Ashby after a car chase Monday in northeast Florida and several bullets struck him in the chest, a medical examiner ruled Wednesday.
But the fatal shot came from Ashby himself when he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, said Dr. Terrence Steiner, medical examiner in St. Johns County, Florida.
Ashby’s suicide ended a weeklong road trip of mayhem.
The 37-year-old Savannah man shot a store clerk in Effingham County, Georgia, and killed a college student in Virginia before sheriff’s deputies chased him down in Florida, police said. They say he also killed a fruit stand owner in South Carolina and may have killed two liquor store employees in Tennessee.
Five days before Ashby stole the car and a revolver, he was living with a friend who took him in off the street, officials said. His ex-wife lived with him and although they were divorced and she saw other men, Ashby supported her.
“I didn’t understand why he was trying so hard to take care of her when she had boyfriends and wouldn’t have anything to do with him, romantically,” said the friend, Chad Blanchard. “My opinion is that had a lot to do with setting him off.”
Investigators said Ashby had no prior record of violence, but they have found evidence of trouble in his life.
On the Web site MySpace.com, Ashby posted messages of lovelorn, angst and violence. “If I could move Id cut it to kill you, like you killed me within,” he wrote. “So now Id say you look beautiful, dead upon the floor.”
Blanchard, 61, said he met Ashby and his ex-wife, Kimberlee, about five months ago. When Ashby fell on hard times last month, Blanchard let them move into his home, where the couple lived together as best friends, not lovers, Blanchard said.
On Sept. 20, a few days after he moved in, Tom Ashby grabbed the keys to one of Blanchard’s cars and left, Blanchard said. Six days later, Blanchard noticed the revolver he kept in a closet was also missing.
By the time he reported the missing gun, it was too late.
Investigators say Waynetta Toler was working the late shift Sept. 24 at the Mighty Mike convenience store in Effingham County west of Savannah when a man came to the counter to buy a pack of crackers.
When Toler opened the cash drawer, they say, Ashby drew a gun and shot her in the head, taking US$200. Toler, 58, survived, but remains hospitalized.
The next day, investigators say Ashby killed Steven Hodge, who was shot dead at his fruit stand near Beaufort, South Carolina, northeast of Savannah.
A similar crime was discovered near the Tennessee-Kentucky border two days later. Ralph Hopper and Julie Maiden were killed at the liquor store where they worked in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. Investigators said forensics tests should determine if Ashby was the killer.
Although investigators are not sure exactly what route Ashby took, police on Sunday found Blanchard’s stolen car in Augusta County, Virginia. Near the car, which was left alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway, police found the body of Elizabeth Hafter, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student.
On Monday, federal marshals tracked Ashby to Florida. A deputy pulled him over in the slain student’s car, but Ashby refused to get out. Instead, he sped off.
Deputies chased Ashby for 30 miles (50 kilometers), at speeds that sometimes exceeded 100 mph (160 kph). Ashby pulled off the highway near the coastal town of St. Augustine into a grassy field.
Seven deputies opened fire when they saw Ashby raise a gun. But Steiner, the medical examiner, said Ashby committed suicide by “a fatal self-inflicted gunshot injury to the head.”
Now investigators are trying to piece together the extent of Ashby’s crime spree and determine exactly why it happened.
“I don’t know what caused him to all of a sudden snap,” said Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie.