Taylor Santiago (Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office).
A Missouri mother who attempted to shoot the fathers of her children, resulting in one fatality, during a multistate shooting spree earlier this year, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Taylor Santiago, 31, from Aurora, confessed in April to charges including first-degree murder, robbery, unlawful weapon use, and child endangerment related to the January 23rd incidents. The occurrences were examined and documented by authorities from both the Aurora-Marionville Police Department in Missouri and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas.
Santiago confessed to shooting the fathers of her children and a woman who was dating one of them, who also died.
“Around 1:45 a.m., Taylor Santiago arrived at the Aurora Police and Fire Facility and alerted us from the parking area, claiming she had killed her estranged husband, Troy Huffman, at her home,” police stated in a January 24th press release. “Officers promptly detained Ms. Santiago and went to her apartment, discovering a deceased male, later identified as Troy Huffman.”
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While in custody, Santiago confessed to driving to Arkansas earlier in the day to shoot the other biological father of her children and a woman who was dating the man, per Wichita, Kansas, NBC affiliate KSN. She turned herself in after arriving back in Missouri following the double shooting, officials say.
Santiago told an AMPD detective during her police interview that she invited Huffman over to her apartment to see their son before he was killed. Santiago said that when he arrived, she told the child she was going to “take care of the bad guys” and had the youngster cover their ears. Santiago pulled out a .38 revolver and hid it behind her back before walking into a room where Huffman was and killing him, according to the Lawrence County Record.
Aurora Police Chief Wes Coatney told Springfield, Missouri, NBC affiliate KYTV he believed the overall motive for the shooting spree was related to custody issues between Santiago and the two male victims. Coatney said it was unclear why Santiago drove back to Aurora to turn herself in.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he told KYTV. “I’m glad she did (turn herself in). I wish she would’ve come to us before she did all of this so we could’ve helped her.”
Santiago was living in an apartment building in Aurora at the time of the shootings, according to police officials. Her neighbor’s daughter was home at the time of the Huffman attack and described what she heard to her mother.
“This is really sad to happen right next door,” neighbor Karla Rodgers told KYTV. “She did hear some banging on the bathroom walls.”
Santiago’s endangerment charge stemmed from her daughter being present during the shooting in Arkansas. That incident left the father of Santiago’s daughter critically injured, while the child was unharmed.
“At first, she was very nice,” Rodgers said about Santiago, who allegedly threatened the neighbor last year. “I don’t know if something happened. I believe she had gotten into drugs.”
