Influencer Sara Gilson was fatally shot weeks after she publicly accused her estranged husband of being a pedophile in a TikTok post.
Owasso Police said Gilson was killed in Oklahoma on July 23 by her husband, Jeremiah Duffey, in a case investigators are treating as an apparent murder-suicide, NBC News reported.
The 43-year-old could be heard screaming and crying during a 911 call made by a minor who was inside the home, just moments before the deadly shooting.
“I’m trying to reach him back, but I could hear a female in the background screaming and crying,” a 911 dispatcher told responding officers at about 11:15 p.m., according to audio obtained by People. “Some sort of loud bang in the background.”
Police arrived at the residence roughly three minutes later and found both Gilson and Duffey dead.
Sara Gilson Accused Husband of Pedophilia on TikTok
In the weeks leading up to the fatal shooting, Gilson had taken part in a viral TikTok trend in which users jokingly act as though they are preparing for a fictional Netflix documentary.
The July 11 post read, “Preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon to be ex husband who I just found out is a pedophile.”
Her caption, however, struck a darker note: “I wish I was joking.” She also added the hashtag #plottwist.
Court records reviewed by Oxygen show that Gilson had been granted an emergency protective order against Duffey on June 10, about a month before her death.
That same day a mother of a 15-year-old girl who Duffey had coached in youth basketball filed for a separate protection order against Duffey.
According to the filing, obtained by The Oklahoman, another coach allegedly saw Duffey kissing and fondling the teen. The teen later told her mother that Duffey had allegedly sent her inappropriate messages, invited her to his hotel room and gave her money “to keep her quiet.”
Police were investigating the allegations at the time of Gilson and Duffey’s death.
Gilson referenced the accusations against her husband in her own filing for a protection order, according to the news outlet, adding in the court records that he had also threatened suicide, had a gun and “went on the run.”
It wasn’t the first time she filed for a protection order against her husband. Gilson also filed two petitions in August and September of 2021, but both protection orders were ultimately dismissed, per court records reviewed by Oxygen.
Gilson left behind two children, according to a GoFundMe post that described her death as a “heartbreaking loss.”
“Sara was an incredible mom,” organizers of the online fundraiser wrote. “Her children were the center of her world, and everything she did was for them. She loved them fiercely, worked hard to provide for them, and dreamed of giving them the best life possible.”
Sara Gilson’s Ex-Husband Had Begged Her to Leave Jeremiah Duffey
Gilson’s ex-husband Lyle Landers—whom she shares her two children with— had begged his ex-wife to leave Duffey for years.
“She had been stuck in a relationship where domestic abuse seemed ‘okay,’” Landers told People. “I had begged her for five years to get away from him. I had offered to help her, in any way I could, to get away from him. But he seemed to have some sort of control over her, and she couldn’t seem to get away.”
He described his ex-wife as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”
“She loved people immensely, and without judgment,” he said. “Her greatest achievement in life, though, was in our two babies.”
