Austen Minter apparently wasn't satisfied toiling in the minors
as a smalltime perp -- trespasser, women abuser, menace behind the wheel. On July 9, the
25-year-old decided to amp up his game: He gunned down three
members of his own family...
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| Austen Minter had a long history of threatening to killer her, even shooting her in 2004. But Tracy Hedgepath kept taking him back. |
As first reported in the Gaston Gazette, Minter
killed the mother of children, Tracy Hedgepath, and two of their kids, Austen
II, age six, and three-year-old Serenity before turning the gun on himself.
A third child, seven-year-old Destiny, survived the carnage.
At the time of the shooting, Hedgepath was three months pregnant with hers and
Minter's fourth child.
In the remote locale in north central North Carolina near
the Virginia line, the murder-suicide is described as one of Gaston County's
worst domestic tragedies in memory.
As Gaston County Police officials try to understand how the
domestic dispute turned deadly, court records show that Minter, who had a
history of mental illness, was a brewing disaster just waiting to happen.
Judging by his criminal history, the killings last week
should not be a shocker.
Minter is a textbook account of a bully and abuser who eventually
would seek blood.
According to Gazette
reporter Michael Barrett, Gaston County Police and Sheriff's
Officials had been called in 17 times to the Dean Drive residence Hedgepath and
Minter shared. Among the responses were three for civil
disturbance, one for a domestic dispute, five warrant services and four to
serve subpoenas.
Minter and Hedgepath had been dating off-and-on again for
the last seven years.
Their dealings with law enforcement began in
2004 when Minter was convicted of shooting Hedgepath.
He was fined $150 and got two years probation.
Fast forward three years to 2007 when Minter fired a gun
into Hedgepath's home while their kids were inside. According to records,
Minter was involuntarily committed to Kings Mountain Hospital.
The violence escalated into the following year when
Hedgepath sought a domestic violence restraining order.
"Austen Minter has threatened to kill me many times,"
Hedgepath said in a 2008 affidavit. "He stomped me to the ground 2 weeks ago
screaming and hitting and kicking... My 3 and 4 year old child was screaming, 'Stop daddy, don't hurt
mommy.'"
That same year Hedgepath would file for custody of the
children, saying her relationship with Minter was over. In the custody fight, a
judge remarked that Minter's behavior "is becoming increasingly erratic,
unpredictable and uninhibited."
Minter would eventually lose his visitation rights. The
couple's custody case was still open at the time when Minter opened fire.
Over the course of his violent past, Minter was
arrested more than a dozen times, was involved in three shootings and was heard
spewing death threats on a regular basis.
The most jail time he ever got was about four months.
However, as is the case in so many tangled and messy
domestic situations, the couple appeared to reconcile and move back in
together.
After last week's killings, Hedgepath's sister Kellie Harris
said of Minter: "He
was a monster.... He was abusive to his own family. He wasn't a man, he was a
monster."
See our last episode of familial death threats: Family Threatens to Kill
Harry Potter Actress for Dating Hindu.
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