CLARKE COUNTY, AL – A rural Alabama community is grieving after a devastating act of domestic violence left a mother and her child dead, a young girl fighting for her life, and the gunman dead from a self-inflicted wound.
According to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched around 8:00 a.m. on April 2, 2025, to conduct a welfare check at a residence on Mary Aquilla Road. What they found inside the home was a scene of unimaginable heartbreak.
Ashley Howell, a 39-year-old mother of two, was discovered with a gunshot wound and was airlifted by LifeFlight to a trauma center in Mobile. Her 8-year-old son, Jayden, was also found in the home, fatally shot. Her 11-year-old daughter, Jalyn, was found clinging to life and was rushed to Grove Hospital, then transferred to Mobile for trauma care.…