A tragic scene unfolded Friday morning on a quiet road in Mingo County, where a young mother lost her life and her husband now faces murder charges. The incident, which began with a neighbor’s concern, ended with a brief standoff and a child safely removed from a home marked by violence.
It was late Friday morning when deputies from the Mingo County Sheriff’s Office rolled up to a house on Triton Lane, just outside Delbarton. A concerned neighbor had called for a welfare check, sensing something wasn’t right. What they found when they arrived, sometime between 10 and 11 a.m., would launch a homicide investigation.
On the porch of the home, covered by a blanket, lay the body of 25-year-old Christina Hunt. She had been shot once, according to preliminary information shared by Deputy Allen Mounts. The scene suggested the shooting had happened not long before deputies arrived, though exactly what led to that moment remains under investigation.
Inside the house, authorities found a 2-year-old child—the couple’s young son or daughter—unharmed but present for the unthinkable. That discovery would later add a charge of child neglect to the case against the man deputies say pulled the trigger: Christina’s husband, 35-year-old Leroy Hunt.
When law enforcement arrived, Hunt refused to come out, leading to a tense but brief standoff. Negotiators worked to make contact, and before long, Hunt surrendered without further incident. He was taken into custody and later booked into the Southwestern Regional Jail, where he now awaits further proceedings on a charge of first-degree murder.
For those who knew the family, the weight of what happened is still settling in. A welfare check, prompted by a neighbor who noticed something amiss, became the doorway to a nightmare. That community vigilance undoubtedly brought help to the scene quickly, but it couldn’t undo the violence that had already occurred.
What led to the shooting, whether there was a history of trouble in the home, or what circumstances brought a young mother to her end on her own porch—these are questions investigators are working to answer. They continue gathering evidence from the Triton Lane residence and interviewing those who knew the couple.
The safe recovery of the child offers a small measure of relief in an otherwise devastating case, but it also underscores the reality that domestic violence can leave the youngest victims caught in its wake. As the Mingo County community processes this loss, the case serves as a stark reminder of the dangers that can exist behind closed doors, hidden from view until it’s too late.