Victims in murder-suicide identified; Suspected shooter was recently arrested on child porn charges

Published 6:13 pm Thursday, April 26, 2018

Clark County Coroner Robert Gayheart has confirmed the identities of two people who were found dead in a home on Two Mile Road Thursday morning from an apparent murder-suicide.

Gayheart said Herbert Ray Rice, 38, and his wife, Kathleen Costello, 35, were both killed by single gunshot wounds. Gayheart said the couple was married, but Costello did not take her husband’s last name.

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No autopsies are scheduled, but Gayheart said it did appear Rice shot his wife and then killed himself.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence at 2655 Two Mile Road at 10:34 a.m. today.

Clark County Sheriff Berl Perdue Jr, confirmed two people, a man and woman, were found dead inside the home. Their identities have not been released though Perdue believes they were married.

Perdue said the male called emergency dispatchers and said he had shot his wife.

“We didn’t know if it was a suicide, accidental or a homicide,” Perdue said. “Upon arrival, we secured the home and attempted to make contact with the caller. Within a couple minutes of identifying ourselves, we heard one single gunshot from inside the house.”

Perdue said deputies entered the home and found the female in a bedroom and the male in the bathroom.

“Both were dead from a gunshot wound,” Perdue said. “Preliminarily, it looks like a murder suicide.”

Perdue said deputies on scene did not recall any prior incidents at the residence. No one else was in the home, aside from several pets which were removed by county animal shelter officials.

Rice was arrested April 19 on 20 counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor and one count of promoting a minor in a sexual performance.

Rice was released on a $15,000 cash bond shortly after his arrest.

According to court documents, the investigation stemmed from a report of a 14-year-old being coerced to send live explicit videos of herself online through Google Hangouts. The girl told Nashville police the other person threatened to post explicit screenshots of the girl online unless she participated in the videos. The girl also told police she was told what to do in the video and how to touch herself.

Police traced the user accounts to an IP address registered to Rice at his residence on Two Mile Road.

Kentucky State Police detectives executed a search warrant at Rice’s home, which was the location of Thursday’s shooting, and confiscated a number of items including computers, flash drives and cell phones after finding more than 20 explicit images.

About Whitney Leggett

Whitney Leggett is managing editor of The Winchester Sun and Winchester Living magazine. To contact her, email whitney.leggett@winchestersun.com or call 859-759-0049.

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