NY woman looking for friend's house fatally shot by homeowner at wrong address, police say

A 20-year-old woman looking for a friend's house in upstate New York was fatally shot by a homeowner when she went to the wrong address, authorities said Monday.

Kaylin Gillis was in a car with three others on Saturday night when they mistakenly pulled into the wrong driveway on Paterson Hill Road in Hebron, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said during a press conference. It's an easy area to get lost in and they were in the driveway for just a short time, he said.

"While they were leaving the residence after they determined that they were at the wrong house, the subject came out on his porch for whatever reason and fired two shots, one of which struck the vehicle that Kaylin was in," Murphy said.

It's a rural area with not a lot of reception, so the driver kept going and eventually someone in the vehicle connected with 911 around 9:50 p.m., authorities said. Patrols found them on Cemetery Road in neighboring Salem and performed CPR on Gillis before she died.

Police headed to 65-year-old Kevin Monahan's Hebron home where Gillis was shot, Murphy said. He was uncooperative and wouldn't come outside to talk with patrols, he said, and officers took him into custody after about an hour of back-and-forth talking. 

Officials believe Monahan is a laborer and has lived at his home in Hebron for "quite a while." He was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. Monahan has not said anything to investigators about why he allegedly started shooting. 

"There was clearly no threat from anybody in the vehicle," Murphy said. "There was no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened."

Gillis is from Schuylerville, New York. Murphy said she came from a very good family.

"From all indications, she was an innocent young girl who was out with friends," he said.

The shooting happened days after Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot and wounded in Kansas City, Missouri, after going to the wrong house to pick up his siblings.