Missouri shooting rampage: 8 Found Dea, Police Identify Alleged Gunmen

A small Missouri town's found that a gunman killed seven people and injured another Thursday night began when a girl managed to flee a residence where she heard gunfire, according to reports.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Joseph Jesse Aldridge killed himself, four of his cousins and three yet-to-be identified victims after his mother died of suspected natural causes.

He was a cousin to four of the victims, who were in their 40s and 50s, and the son of 74-year-old Alice L. Aldridge, who appeared to have died of natural causes, state police said. Her body was also found-along with the seven victims and one wounded person-around five homes within a three-mile radius in the rural community about 90 miles east of Springfield, Mo., according to authorities.

"We're speculating that he came home and found her deceased and then for whatever reason went on a rampage and started killing people," Texas County Coroner Tom Whittaker told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"This is just so strange. Right now, with the shooter dead, we don't know. Is there something that sparked this? We're still in the information-gathering stage," he added.

The alleged gunman was found in a parked vehicle in Shannon County, authorities said.

Texas County sheriff's deputies were called about 10:15 p.m. Thursday by a frightened girl who reported gunshots in a residence, the Houston Herald reported, citing the State Highway Patrol.

She fled to a neighbor's home before cops found two bodies in her home.