Officials Mum About Motive Of Slaying

Authorities say they think they know why a sharecropper killed a Shoshone-area woman, her four children and then himself, but are not ready to disclose the motive.

A Monday memorial service was held in Shoshone for Denise McCoy, 33, and her children, Genevieve King, 12; Jordan King, 10; Chelsea King, 8; and Adrianna McCoy, 2. They were shot to death, apparently by a friend of the man McCoy intended to marry this summer.

“We feel we have a motive,” said Clark Rollins of the Idaho Bureau of Narcotics on Monday. But he said no announcement would be made until ballistics and fingerprints are reviewed this week.

Although investigators said Walter Schoolcraft, 48, apparently did all the killing, residents generally express disbelief that the lifelong bachelor could be responsible.

Denise McCoy’s ex-husband, Michael King of Seattle, has admitted to owing $15,000 to Idaho’s welfare system for child-support payments he did not make for their three children.