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South Carolina authorities say the relationship between a 60-year-old physician and a 39-year-old professional organizer ended violently on Tuesday night when the woman shot the doctor several times before turning the gun on herself.
The attempted murder-suicide on Hilton Head Island left Dr. Gaston Perez wounded but alive, a statement from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office confirms.
A neighbor witnessed the entire incident and, according to law enforcement, told them the shooting happened right outside Perez’s residence.
Hours before the shooting, Perez was granted a restraining order against Rudemyer, according to court records. (PEOPLE was unable to obtain a copy of the order and further details about it were not immediately available.)
Sheriff’s officials said evidence at the scene supports witness accounts that Rudemyer fired several rounds at Perez before fatally shooting herself. Her gun was also recovered.
A final cause of death with be issued as soon as toxicology results are returned.
Perez, a family doctor, also serves as the medical director of Hospice Care of South Carolina. Rudemyer was a professional organizer and had worked for years as a teacher.
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According to theIsland Packet,authorities received at least two warnings last monthabout Rudemyer from friends living in other states.
One of the tipsters reportedly indicated on Aug. 28 that Rudemyer had disclosed a plan to kill Perez and was going to travel to Georgia to purchase a firearm: “She recently broke up with a long term boyfriend. She told me she had every intention of killing him then killing herself tonight,” reads the tip submitted to Crime Stoppers.
Rudemyer was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining a gun on that occasion, according to thePacket. It remains unclear how she obtained the weapon used this week.
“I didn’t really know what to say,” the friend told the paper of Rudemyer. “I encouraged her many, many, many times to seek help.”
ThePacketreports that Bluffton Police were also dispatched to Rudemyer’s home in late August for a welfare check after another friend called and said Rudemyer said she was “thinking of buying a gun.”
The paper reports that Rudemyer told the friend, “I don’t know if I want to kill him or myself first.”
“Ms. Rudemyer said she was fine and that everything was okay. After talking to her for several minutes Ms. Rudemyer did admit that she was having a rough time and she agreed that she wanted to be voluntarily transported to the hospital.”
A sheriff’s spokesman confirmed to thePacketthat they had received the tip about Rudemyer made in late August but declined to discuss it further, saying it was part of their ongoing investigation.
He reportedly said he had no further information about the welfare check from the point that Rudemyer was taken to the hospital.
“There were good days and bad days,” the tipster friend told thePacket. “She sounded really, really good this weekend.”
source: people.com
