"Bayou Billionaires" reality star dead in murder-suicide
SHREVEPORT, La. — A woman who was shot to death Monday before her killer turned the gun on himself has been identified by Shreveport, Louisiana police as Valerie Wells, the 47-year-old former star of reality television show “Bayou Billionaires,” reports CBS affiliate KSLA.
Wells was shot multiple times outside a Shreveport McDonald’s around 4 p.m., while sitting in the driver’s seat of her parked car. She was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after.
Arriving officers found 46-year-old Robbert Gaddy nearby, dying from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Wells and her family are well-known in the Shreveport area, according to KSLA. Their television show, which first aired on CMT in 2012, focused on the family’s lives after they struck it rich leasing mineral rights to drill for natural gas on their property.
Shreveport Police Department Cpl. Marcus Hines told KSLA that Gaddy and Wells had been involved in a relationship in the past.
Wells’ parents, Kitty and Gerald Dowden, reportedly posted a message on shared social media site Tuesday, saying, “This is really hard on us and her children it is out of order no parents should have to go thru this.”