Posted on Wed, May. 07, 2008

SAUCIER -- The shock of a triple homicide followed by a suicide spread Tuesday as authorities confirmed the devastation of a husband's rage in the fatal shooting of three teenagers.

The only survivor was the gunman's wife, Zonia Ferri, who was assaulted but escaped, unaware Walter Ferri would turn his wrath on her teenagers and a fiancé at their home on Andre Drive, said Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara.

Coroner Gary Hargrove identified the victims as Sherry Lee, 17, her sister, Stacy Lee, 19, and Stacy's fiancé, 19-year-old James Glass of Long Beach. Sherry Lee was a senior at Harrison Central High. Stacy Lee was a cashier at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wiggins. Authorities said Glass was staying at the family's home in Flushing Meadows subdivision in the northwest tip of Harrison County.

Sheriff's authorities said an autopsy showed Stacy Lee was pregnant.

Ferri, a 50-year-old construction worker, took his own life before sunrise as deputies surrounded the mobile home. Authorities believe he'd used a revolver and a shotgun, firing at least seven shots, and killed the teens in a 12-minute window before patrol officers arrived.

"He had argued with his wife, accusing her of doing all different kinds of things," said Brisolara, calling the slayings "brutal... the worst, most sad crime I've ever seen."

Ferri's wife worked with her eldest daughter at the Wiggins Wal-Mart.

Brisolara said deputies responded to the home after a 3:22 a.m. call from one of the girls, who said her stepfather was pointing a gun at her mother. Deputies were on the scene when dispatchers received a second call at 3:37 a.m., with a female warning someone had been shot. Brisolara said a SWAT team was on its way and Sgt. John Massingill was negotiating with Ferri through a bedroom window, coaxing the man to come out, when they heard Ferri shoot himself at 4:40 a.m.

Zonia Ferri survived, the sheriff said, by crawling out a bathroom window and hiding under the front porch, then darting across the road to a neighbor's house.

A deputy sat with Zonia Ferri at another neighbor's home as investigators gathered evidence and as funeral home personnel, wearing white disposable uniforms, rolled the covered bodies out of the residence.

Carol Dixon, a guidance counselor at Harrison Central, said counselors visited classrooms to announce the death of Sherry Lee. They also offered group counseling and several individual sessions.

"She was very popular and a very good student," Dixon said. "She had a number of close friends and some were very distraught. We're all devastated."

Her older sister, Stacy Lee, was "a real personable young lady. Everybody liked her," said Gary Jones, manager of the Wiggins Wal-Mart. "It's hard," Jones said, "but everybody's holding up the best they can."

Debbie Rosner of Andre Drive said the shooting upset the serenity of an otherwise quiet neighborhood, though the home she recently bought was the scene of a murder-suicide in December 2005. Rosner said her home is so soundproof she was unaware of what happened Tuesday until a deputy knocked on her door.

"It's a shame, shame, shame. The girl that rode the school bus, she was beautiful," said Rosner, referring to Sherry Lee.