Inset: Ralph Mincey (Walton County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home in Oxford, Georgia where Mincey is accused of fatally shooting his wife and daughter. (Google Maps).
Authorities in Georgia have arrested a man accused of murdering his wife and adult daughter in a tragic incident earlier this week, as reported by local law enforcement.
Ralph Mincey, aged 63, faces charges of murder for both deaths and an additional charge related to weapon possession. The victims have been identified as 57-year-old Jennifer Lynn Mincey and her 37-year-old daughter, Amanda Mincey McBrayer.
This shocking case of family violence occurred late Wednesday at a home on Gauntt Road in Oxford, a small town situated about 40 miles southeast of Atlanta.
Upon arrival, deputies discovered Mincey’s daughter had already died from her injuries, according to a statement from the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. His wife was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital but tragically, she did not survive. Mincey was apprehended on the spot.
“We are saddened by this senseless loss of life,” Walton County Sheriff Keith Brooks said in a terse press release.
On Friday, harrowing 911 calls were released which shed some light on what happened that fateful night.
In one call, Amanda McBrayer’s husband, Adam McGrath, told a dispatcher he saw the shooting unfold before he fled, according to audio obtained by Atlanta-based NBC affiliate WXIA.
“He just shot my wife in the head,” the grieving husband said, referring to the defendant. “I literally ran away because I had two kids I’ve got to protect, and I’m scared to go back up there.”
McGrath went on to tell the dispatcher his wife and her father were arguing about something immediately before the shooting.
“My wife was drunk, she was upset, she wanted me to bring her home,” the victim’s husband continued on the 911 call. “So I brought her to her parent’s house and then she got into it with her dad and her dad said, ‘I’ve got a gun, I’ve got a gun. I’m gonna pull the f—ing trigger,’ then shot her in the head. Then he grabbed his wife by the throat, threw her down and threatened to kill her too.”
As deputies responded to the address, another 911 call came in – this one from the defendant himself.
“My wife had told my daughter that I didn’t take care of my mother,” Mincey told a dispatcher. “I do every day, and I – I just shot my daughter and my wife of 38 years.”
The dispatcher inquired: “Do you know if they’re still breathing?”
“No, it don’t look like it,” the defendant replied. “It was a nine millimeter right straight to the head.”
Mincey went on to try to explain himself.
“I just – I couldn’t handle no more the f—ing lying and the way they were screaming at me,” the defendant said on the call. “I don’t know, I just, I lost it. I’m so sorry. Thirty-eight years, I love her.”