Grim photos show blood smeared on the front of a Tennessee home where a gunman massacred his family before turning the gun on himself.
Aaron Pursley was the sole survivor of last week's murder-suicide in Marion County, and remains in the hospital after he escaped to a neighbor's home.
Pursley's aunt Lisa Massengale Kilgore told WTVC that he had just gotten engaged to Brittnee Perez, one of the victims, when his life changed forever.
Authorities said Gary Barnett, 48, shot and killed his estranged wife Regina Barnett, her daughter Brittnee and three children before torching the home.
Aaron Pursley was the sole survivor of last week's murder-suicide in Marion County. He's pictured with two children who were not victims of the massacre, a local TV station reported
Grim photos show blood smeared on the front of a Tennessee home where a gunman massacred his family before turning the gun on himself
The house was fully engulfed when the authorities arrived on the scene.
Pursley was found with three bullet wounds and flown to Chattanooga hospital where he faces surgery.
'It just broke our hearts,' Kilgore said. 'It's very hard to talk about and hard to handle.'
Kilgore said her nephew escaped to a neighbor's house for help.
'The Lord was not finished with him. And he carried him outside to be able to go get help,' Kilgore said.
'Aaron fell down on the porch and managed to get up. He said it was all he could do.'
Kilgore said her nephew may need one of his fingers amputated. But it's the horrific memories of the tragedy that haunt him.
'When he tries to go to sleep, all he can replay in his mind is you know the actual shooting,' she said. 'He does not want to be left alone.'
The gunman who carried out the massacre posed in a 'Friday the 13th' mask only months before he went on the rampage.
Authorities said Gary Barnett, 48, shot and killed his estranged wife Regina Barnett, her daughter Brittnee and three children before torching the home
The house was fully engulfed when the authorities arrived on the scene
Police tape blocked the home in Tennessee that was the site of a murder-suicide that left six people dead
In a posting made in October 2022, several months before the deadly shooting, Barnett is pictured wearing the Jason Voorhees mask from the 'Friday the 13th,' horror film franchise.
In a TikTok video that Barnett also posted to his Facebook last week a woman says: 'One really messed up things that guys experience after a breakup is when their ex not only pretends, but spreads word that he is a bad man just so she doesn't feel guilty over how she treated him.'
Barnett also posted on his Facebook a quote from Marvin Heemeyer: 'I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.'
Heemeyer was an American automobile repair shop owner who demolished numerous buildings with a modified bulldozer in Granby, Colorado in 2004.
Meanwhile, ex-wife Regina had filed a restraining order against her husband a month ago warning that she feared he would kill her in a drunken rage, court records show.
A gunman who killed his wife, her daughter and three kids in an horrific murder-suicide in rural Tennessee posed in a 'Friday the 13th' mask only months before he went on the rampage and carried out the murder-suicide
Barnett also posted a quote from Marvin Heemeyer: 'I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.'
A judge had approved a 'no contact order' against Barnett which was still active at the time of the killings.
Regina wrote in court documents: 'My soon to be (ex) husband threatened to shoot me and he verbally abuses me every day. He also threatened to shoot my dog. He also has anywhere from 50 to 60 guns in his room. I am afraid he will get drunk and shoot me.'
It was earlier revealed that Regina's daughter Perez had been visiting her at the home at the time of the murders.
The victims have been taken to Nashville for autopsies.
Ex-wife Regina had filed a restraining order against her husband a month ago warning that she feared he would kill her in a drunken rage, court records show
One victim at the scene was found with three gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital
The sole survivor escaped to a neighbors house for help
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is in taking the lead in the investigation
Family mass killings have become a disturbingly common tragedy across the country. They've happened nearly every 3.5 weeks for the last two decades on average. In 2022 there were 17 of them, according to a database, compiled by multiple media organizations.
Ten were murder-suicides, and 14 were shootings. The database defines a mass killing as four or more people slain, not including the assailant.
Sequatchie, Tennessee, is one of more than 30 communities sent reeling by a family mass killing in the last two years, a list that includes communities of wealth and poverty and spares no race or class.
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