Woman charged with murder tells detectives she intended to shoot and kill her father
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REXBURG — A woman charged with murder “fully admitted and confessed” to driving from Montana to the Rexburg area to shoot and kill her father, according to court documents obtained by EastIdahoNews.com.
Jessica Conser, 34, was arraigned before Judge Mark Rammell in Madison County on Wednesday afternoon on one count of first-degree murder with a weapons enhancement charge.
Deputies were called to a home on the 2800 block of 2000 North (in the Hibbard area west of Rexburg) around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, where they found Mathew Travao had been shot in the head.
“During the 911 call, Mrs. Travao indicted that her husband’s daughter, Jessica Conser, had been in the living room of the home with Mathew while (Mrs. Travao) and her two grandkids (Conser’s children) were in another room of the home,” a probable cause affidavit states. “(Mrs. Travao) indicated she heard yelling. Then she heard shots and then, as she came out of the room she was in, she saw Jessica running out of the house.”
Mathew Travao’s wife realized her husband had been shot in the eye and was bleeding. When deputies arrived, court documents state he was slumped on the couch, where there was “a large amount” of blood. Travao’s breathing was shallow and labored, and he was bleeding from the mouth.
EMTs arrived, and Travao was rushed to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center by ambulance. He died at the hospital around 10:10 p.m.
Police say Conser left the house in a black 2005 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. As a Madison County Sheriff deputy helped Conser’s two children pack clothes to leave the home, her 10-year-old daughter “asked (the deputy) if her mom had shot ‘papa,'” according to court documents.
A Clark County Sheriff’s deputy stopped Conser’s truck around 10:30 p.m. near the Idaho-Montana line. A Glock 26 9mm pistol was found under the driver’s seat, according to documents, and Conser was transported to the Madison County Jail.
After being read her Miranda rights, court documents say Conser “fully admitted and confessed to driving from Butte, Montana, to Rexburg to shoot and kill her father, Mathew Travao.”
Conser is being held in the Madison County Jail without bond. If found guilty of first-degree murder, she could face the death penalty.
