Sprankle, Beth Ann: 2007

Beth Ann Sprankle had met Carlos Ortiz over the Internet.  He moved from Allentown to Altoona and they had two sons.
When Beth Ann Sprankle’s relationship with her boyfriend, Carlos Ortiz, turned sour, she did everything right.  After all, she was the daughter of a Blair County constable.  There were numerous trips to the county courthouse, and Ortiz became a regular there due to the controversy regarding custody of the children.  His daughter had been removed from his home by Blair County Children and Youth Services.  She obtained a protection from abuse order on December 21, 2006, but Ortiz continued his violence against her.  According to Ms Sprankle’s then-current boyfriend, the week before the shooting, during a custody transfer at the Altoona Police station, he threatened her again.
On February 9, 2007, Beth Ann took her two children from her home in Duncansville to their day care, Time to Succeed, in Greenwood, just outside the Altoona City limits.  The 37-year-old Ortiz was waiting for her.
He left his Ford, and approached her vehicle.  In the back seat were the  two boys, Brandon and Christian.  In addition, about a half-dozen children and staff of the day care were witnesses.  Ortiz fired through the windshield with a 9mm handgun; Beth Ann was struck in the neck.  Ortiz ran to the passenger side of her Oldsmobile and fired again, hitting her in the head.  Beth Ann was 24 at the time.
Ortiz then ran, darting through several residential properties before stopping on Pitt Road.  A woman walking her dog saw him fumble with his gun, and then shoot himself in the head.
Logan Township Police quickly arrived on the scene.  The four-year-old boy strapped in the back seat asked them, “He shot my mommy, didn’t he?”  Beth Ann’s family took the boys to care for them.