The April 6th, 1937 Bedford Times-Press had the following account of a murder-suicide that took place in Bedford:
Roy Melvin, 55, shot his wife, Bertha Taylor Melvin, 46, his oldest of two sons, Orlen, 23, and then turned the revolver on himself at their home in Bedford Sunday forenoon about 10:00 o'clock.
Death resulted in all three shootings in a short time.
Their other son, Darold, 15, witnessed the shooting of his father and brother and heard the shots that killed his mother. Running down into the basement in their night clothes when they heard their mother scream and the shots that followed, the boys discovered their mother lying on the cement floor, blood pouring from wounds in her mouth, neck and chest.
The older boy ran to his mother. He believed she had shot herself, according to the younger boy's story. Then the father, gun in hand stepped out from his hiding place and fired a shot into the older boy's back and side. The one shot proved fatal. Officers believe the father and older boy had a scuffle before the shot was fired that killed the boy.
Then according to the younger boy and sole survivor of the family of four, the father put two more shells into his revolver.
"Are you going to Shoot me, too?" the younger boy states he asked his father as he watched him reload the pistol.
"No, not you. I didn't intend to shoot Orlen but he got in my way", the boy reports his father said.
Then the father placed the pistol to his own abdomen firing one shot about two inches below the navel, that ranged upward.
The boy says his father then took a few steps and then another shot was fired. It is believed the second shot was fired into his mouth. The boy says he wasn't looking when the second shot was fired.
Roy Melvin and his wife had been having trouble off and on for some time. Last fall Mrs. Melvin had her husband restrained by law from coming to her place and filed a divorce action against him. This trouble was patched up and they resumed living together.
Reports are about three weeks ago trouble again broke out between them and Melvin moved out, to make his home with I.N. Weingarth, in his shoe shop on Court street.
Saturday night Melvin is reported to have been seen in the vicinity of his wife's home. Early Sunday morning about 4 o'clock Melvin arose and left the Weingarth store, according to reports, and it is believed he went to his wife's home and gained entrance to the basement by pushing open a cellar door held fast by a button-lock on the inside.
About ten o'clock Mrs. Melvin got up and putting on her house slippers went to the basement to fix the fire. Apparently Melvin was hiding in an anti-room at the time. The fuel in the furnace indicated that she had put in some lumps of coal before he made his presence known. The double-murder and suicide all took place in the basement.
Darold Melvin attempted to give first aid to his mother and brother, taking off his night shirt to stop the flow of blood from his mother's wounds. Then he ran back upstairs and called for a doctor on the telephone, returned to the basement to administer to his mother and brother, and then ran across the yard to the George McLaury home to sob out his story.
Deputy Sheriff Ivan Wells, Sheriff T.V. Lacy, Coroner Floyd Shum and other were soon at the scene. The bodies were taken to the Walker Shum funeral home.
No inquest was held as it was apparent what had taken place, by the boy's story and the appearance of the bodies and the cellar.
Melvin secured the gun an old six-shot revolver, .32 caliber at Maryville a few days ago, it is believed, and bought some shells for it at the Prugh Hardware.
In his pockets officers found over $50 in money. Six empty shells and five loaded ones were found about the basement floor.
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