Mo. teen allegedly fatally shot adoptive father in the head, said he 'had to do it'

ADRIAN, Mo. (TCN) -- Deputies arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly shooting and killing his adoptive father in the head with a rifle over the weekend.

According to a statement, a man called the Bates County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, Sept. 28, at around 11:20 p.m., and said he shot his father and fled the scene. The caller, identified as Carter Curtis, did not provide his exact location to the dispatcher. He reportedly said the shooting occurred at a residence on 8th Street in Adrian, so Adrian Police Department officers, Bates County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and Missouri Highway Patrol troopers responded to the home within two minutes.

The Adrian Police officer who wrote Curtis' probable cause statement there were two "hysterical" females, one adult and one juvenile, in the driveway when law enforcement arrived. One of the women reportedly screamed, "He has never been violent."

The officer went into the residence and found the victim, 41-year-old John McMurphy, on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to the head.

McMurphy’s wife told the officer she woke up when she heard the gunshot, so she walked into the hall and found Curtis. He allegedly "handed her the rifle and stated that 'I already called 911 and I had to do it.'" Curtis left and the wife found McMurphy "face-down in the dining room by the table." The police officer reportedly found a spent shell casing in the rifle’s chamber and a magazine that did not have any other bullets.

Curtis was arrested at 11:33 p.m. and charged with first-degree homicide and armed criminal action. He is being held at the Bates County Jail without bond.

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