Before the bullets pierced her back, 35-year-old paralegal Shayla Sullivan dialed 911 from her Stone Mountain home late Monday night. She complained her husband was off his medicine for bipolar disorder and making threats to harm himself.
But by the time DeKalb County police arrived, something had changed. Sullivan told officers everything was OK, that she and Clifford Elston, the father of her two sons, had a dispute, but now he planned to leave for the night, according to a newly-released incident report. Sullivan's mother and Elston himself said things would be OK, too.
The officer watched the 34-year-old husband drive away from the Wetherborn Place home in his Dodge Ram.
About an hour later, the husband came back and a frantic scene ensued, leaving him and his wife dead in an apparent murder-suicide and a vast, complex void in the family's lives.
Terrell, who is married to Sullivan's sister, said the couple had been fighting over Sullivan's plans to leave Elston, largely because he wouldn't take his medicine and had a penchant for violence. Elston also had trouble holding down a job for the same reasons, Terrell said. Sullivan worked for a downtown Atlanta law firm.
Sullivan ran as fast as she could toward the house.
The 14-year-old son came to help his grandmother, and tried to pull his mother inside, Terrell said.
When the police report was written, the officer who left after the first 911 response noted statements of the husband, wife and mother-in-law in explaining the decision to let Elston drive away. Considering that Elston reportedly wasn't taking his medicine, the officer asked "repeatedly" if he needed to go to a hospital or a crisis center.
The 12-year-old son doesn't yet know what all happened, because of his own mental challenges, Terrell said. The 14 year old returned to school Thursday, with hopes that school counselors can comfort him.
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