NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson’s in-laws found dead in suspected murder-suicide
Investigators believe that Terry Janway, who is the mother of Johnson’s wife Chandra, was the shooter
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NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson’s father-in-law and mother-in-law were found dead in a suspected murder-suicide in Oklahoma.
Muskogee police say that 69-year-old Jack Janway, 68-year-old Terry Janway and 11-year-old Dalton Janway were found fatally shot after a disturbance call to their home on Monday evening.
Investigators believe that Terry Janway, who is the mother of Johnson’s wife Chandra, was the shooter, reported the Muskogee Phoenix.
Johnson, who has been NASCAR Cup Series champion seven times, married Chandra in 2004 and the couple has two daughters, Genevieve and Lydia. Chandra Johnson grew up in Muskogee, where her father had been a longtime chiropractor.
Muskogee Police Officer Lynn Hamlin told the newspaper that they were investigating what caused the shooting.
“That’s what they are still investigating but there appears there’s no threat to the community so it’s looking very likely that it’s a murder-suicide,” she said.
MPD says that they received a call at 9.05pm on Monday night from a woman saying that there was a disturbance and someone with a gun, before hanging up.
When officers arrived they found Jack Janway, laying in a hallway inside the house and then heard another gunshot from further inside the property.
The officers pulled Janway outside and ordered anyone else in the house to come outside. When a search was carried out the bodies of Terry Janway and Dalton Janway were discovered.
“It was traumatizing to find out that a long-standing family who had made so many contributions to our community were involved in this type of incident. It was even more bone-chilling to find out there was a child involved,” Muskogee Mayor Marlon Coleman told FOX23.
“I knew Dr Janway. Dr Janway has worked on me, we’ve been acquaintances for a very, very long time since I’ve been in Muskogee. Just knowing that it was him and his family took a different toll on me.”
Following the tragedy, Jimmie Johnson’s team pulled out of Sunday’s NASCAR race in Chicago.