Authorities say a 73-year-old neighbor opened fire after confronting people at a House Springs home about activity there.

HOUSE SPRINGS, Mo. — A Missouri mother and her 17-year-old daughter died after authorities say a neighbor walked to their home carrying a gun, confronted people there about activity he had found frustrating and shot both victims before later turning the weapon on himself.

The July 25 shooting killed Jessica Lashly, 38, and Jersey Greer, 17, in House Springs, an unincorporated Jefferson County community southwest of St. Louis. Authorities identified their neighbor as Robert Winkelman, 73. Investigators said he had developed ongoing frustrations about activity at the residence before walking down the street and questioning people who were present. Lashly and Greer survived the initial shooting but died at a hospital on July 27. Prosecutors upgraded the case to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action before Winkelman died from his own wound on Aug. 2.

The confrontation began at about 8:30 p.m., according to reporting based on information from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said Winkelman approached the residence and started questioning those gathered there. Authorities have described the dispute as involving activity or noise at the home, but they have not publicly detailed all of the circumstances behind his complaints or established how long any disagreement had existed. After Lashly responded to him, investigators allege, Winkelman pulled out a firearm and shot her. The available public accounts do not establish that Lashly or anyone else at the residence was armed or had threatened Winkelman before the shooting.

Greer then moved toward her wounded mother and tried to provide first aid, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities allege Winkelman shot the teenager as she was attempting to help Lashly. Investigators also said Winkelman chased a third person while still armed, though that person was not shot. Later reporting on emergency dispatch traffic said another young person at the residence hid in a closet as authorities rushed to the scene. The sheriff’s office said multiple witnesses were able to provide investigators with information about what happened, giving detectives accounts of the confrontation even as the three people who suffered gunshot wounds remained hospitalized.

Deputies arriving in the neighborhood found Winkelman outside his own home with the firearm, authorities said. As deputies moved to confront and detain him, he shot himself. Lashly, Greer and Winkelman were all taken to hospitals in critical condition. The mother and daughter died two days later, on July 27. Winkelman remained hospitalized for several additional days and died Aug. 2. Because he died before the criminal case could proceed, the allegations against him were never tested at trial, and there will be no prosecution in which witnesses, evidence and the state’s accusations can be examined before a jury.

The legal case changed during the days between the shooting and Winkelman’s death. Prosecutors initially charged him with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action while Lashly and Greer were still being treated. After both women died, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office upgraded the assault counts to two counts of first-degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office and local reporting. The changes reflected the deaths of the victims, but Winkelman’s hospitalization meant the case did not move through the ordinary early stages of a homicide prosecution before his death ended the possibility of bringing him to court.

Investigators later said Winkelman had what they characterized as ongoing frustrations about activity at the neighboring residence. That finding helped explain why he went to the home that evening, but authorities have released limited information about any earlier interactions between the neighbors. Public reporting has not established whether previous complaints were made to law enforcement, whether Winkelman had directly confronted the family before July 25 or what specific activity prompted him to approach the residence that night. Those unanswered questions have left relatives with only a partial explanation for why a neighborhood disagreement escalated into lethal violence.

For Lashly’s family, the events are also remembered through what Jersey did after her mother was wounded. Jersey’s twin sister, Justice Greer, told local reporters that her sister’s attempt to help their mother reflected the teenager’s character. Justice was not at the home when the shooting occurred. She described the household as a close family centered on Lashly and her twin daughters, and she remembered her mother as someone who worked hard to provide for them. The family’s accounts shifted attention away from the man investigators blamed and toward the lives of the mother and daughter who died.

A shared obituary provides a broader picture of those lives. Lashly had studied business management and worked as an office manager for Lashly Tree Service. Relatives said she enjoyed working on cars and put motherhood at the center of her life. Jersey was preparing to begin her senior year at Northwest High School. She played lacrosse and participated in a select league during the summer. The obituary describes an outgoing teenager who enjoyed sports and spending time with friends and family. Mother and daughter were both organ donors, according to the family, adding another chapter to how relatives have chosen to remember them after their deaths.

Jersey’s death also reached beyond the family into her school and sports communities. Her twin sister and a former lacrosse coach described her in interviews as someone who could make other people laugh, recognize when they were struggling and lift their spirits. Those recollections became especially significant because investigators say Jersey moved toward danger to help her mother rather than away from her. Family members have emphasized that action when discussing the final moments of the teenager’s life, while friends, teammates and others in the Northwest High School community rallied around the surviving relatives.

The shooting occurred during a period in which Jefferson County authorities were already investigating several killings. Local reporting shortly after Lashly and Greer died said their deaths brought the county’s homicide count to five for the year at that point. A sheriff’s office captain said shootings in the county were generally not random and commonly involved people who knew one another through domestic, family, acquaintance or ongoing-dispute relationships. The House Springs case fit the latter pattern described by investigators: neighbors lived close enough for Winkelman to walk from his home to Lashly’s residence before the confrontation.

No criminal trial will determine Winkelman’s guilt because he died before the case could proceed. The publicly described investigation instead rests on witness accounts, the sequence reported by deputies and evidence gathered after the shooting. What remains established in the official account is that Lashly and Greer were critically wounded July 25, died July 27 and were the subjects of murder charges filed against Winkelman before his Aug. 2 death. Relatives continue to remember the mother and daughter through their family lives, Jersey’s school and lacrosse connections and the teenager’s effort to help her mother during the attack.

Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.