A Home Shattered: Mourning the Loss of 11-Year-Old Ashly and a Woman Silenced in Her Own Garage
“Home should be the safest place — a sanctuary. For Ashly, it wasn’t.”
A profound sorrow has settled over a community shaken to its core after a senseless and deeply disturbing act of violence. Ashly McFarland, just 11 years old, was killed in her own home on Floyd Drive, the very place where she should have felt safest. Her life was cut short in a moment of unimaginable terror — a moment that has left loved ones reeling and a neighborhood struggling to make sense of the unthinkable.
On that day, Reuben Leonard, an 80-year-old neighbor, armed himself with a rifle, walked into the McFarland home, and opened fire. Ten people were inside the house. Children. Parents. Grandparents. Family gathered together — unaware that danger was approaching their door.
Ashly was struck. Despite desperate efforts, she did not survive.
Her family — filled with grief and shock — found a flicker of strength amid the chaos. Several relatives tackled Leonard and held him down, preventing him from harming anyone else. Their courage in the face of such horror cannot be overstated. But the pain of losing Ashly remains, deep and devastating.
Ashly was just beginning her life. A child full of curiosity, love, and energy — a light in the lives of those who knew her. Her laughter echoed through her home. Her joy was infectious. She was a daughter, a friend, a niece, a student — and now, a memory carried with tears and heartbreak by all who loved her.
And yet, the horror did not end with Ashly’s tragic death.
As authorities investigated the shooting, Leonard confessed to a second, chilling crime: the murder of his own wife. She was found in their garage, already gone — the victim of another senseless shooting. There had been no call, no warning. She was taken from this world in silence.
Reports suggest Leonard had been angry over noise, a grievance that spiraled into devastation. Just days earlier, he had been charged with disturbing the peace, a red flag that — in hindsight — offered a warning sign of the unrest brewing inside his mind.
But no grievance, no matter how severe, could ever justify the terror unleashed that day. Two lives gone. A family destroyed. A neighborhood left with unanswered questions and a sorrow that won’t soon fade.
This is more than a crime story. It’s a story of stolen innocence, of unseen suffering, and of a community now mourning two lives lost — one a child taken in a heartbeat, the other a woman whose name we may not yet know, but whose loss is equally profound.
As we process this tragedy, we remember Ashly — not for the way she died, but for the way she lived: joyfully, lovingly, and with a heart that brought warmth to her home. We mourn the unnamed woman — for her quiet strength, for the years of life she had behind her, and for the dignity she deserved.
Let us surround their families with compassion, offer strength where we can, and remind ourselves of the importance of seeing, hearing, and helping those around us who may be in distress. And let us continue to say Ashly’s name — not just in grief, but in love.
Rest peacefully, Ashly. Rest peacefully, too, to the woman whose life ended far too quietly.
You both deserved more. And you will never be forgotten.