11 shots struck Calder family

Eleven bullets pierced the four people involved in a family shootout last week in Calder, Idaho.

An autopsy Monday revealed that Rick Turner had been shot four times by his estranged wife’s .22-caliber gun, said Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds.

“One of them would have been fatal over time,” but Turner turned his own, larger gun on himself to deliver a fifth and fatal bullet, Reynalds said.

His father-in-law, 71-year-old Fred Smith, was shot three times with a .38-caliber, the gun Rick Turner was shooting, Reynalds said. Effie Smith, 68, was shot twice with that same gun, the sheriff said.

Turner apparently shot the couple as they were seated in living room chairs, Reynalds said.

Authorities are turning to the lone survivor, Rose Turner, to determine exactly what happened Thursday at her home near the St. Joe River in the tiny community east of St. Maries.

It was her parents and estranged husband who died.

Shoshone County investigators tried Monday to talk to Turner at a Spokane hospital.

But complications from her own wound – a bullet hit near her eye – meant she could not be interviewed, Reynalds said.

“We’re hoping for an interview in the future,” but authorities don’t yet know how much she’ll remember, Reynalds said.

“Physically, she’s doing well and lots better, but there are some other problems.”

In the days before the shooting, Rose Turner had confided to co-workers that she feared her estranged husband would kill her. A worried colleague discovered the crime scene at Rose Turner’s house after Turner did not show up for work Thursday.

Reynalds said Rick Turner was upset about his pending divorce and had “bragged he was going to do this.”