After murder-suicide, bonds of family remain strong along Moncure Flatwood Road

In a small, brick house, Childress' mother, Helen Mason, a 93-year-old widow, lived and died. A farmer's wife, Mason raised two daughters in this house.

Childress got married inside that small, brick house. She and her husband built a house right across the road, as did her sister, Jeanie Ray and her husband, Larry.

"We didn't want to go anywhere else," she said.

The couple moved in next door to Mason, Nicole's grandmother.

Relatives say he shot and killed his wife, Jeanie, then went to that small, brick house across the road.

Mason had two visitors at her kitchen table: her nephew Ellis Mansfield and his wife, Lisa, who had come to bring her a meal.

All three were murdered.

Finally, they said, Ray returned to his home and shot himself.

Family members say they don't know what sparked this violence, but said Ray had a hot temper.

"I've got to stay strong for them," she said. "They're my life."