September 12, 2025, was like any other day at the Preston Health Center on Hilton Head Island where nurses were making their rounds down the halls, and an elderly woman and her husband had just arrived to move into their new room. Harriet Kay Recker was 82 years old and Dennis, her husband of five decades, was 81. Neighbors described the couple as kind and wholesome, the sort of people who waved at you from their driveway, and kept an eye on their neighbors’ mail. “She was always loving,” a woman who described herself as Harriet’s friend said. “The nicest person in Sun City.”
Unfortunately, time had taken its toll. Dennis had been admitted to the health center the day before the shooting because he required more care than his wife could provide at home. The move was supposed to be temporary, but many elderly couples dread such transitions, because of the unspoken knowledge that another link in their life’s chain has been broken, that independence is fading, and that this new stage, whatever it holds, is also coming to an end.
Neighbors say that a woman who lived nearby drove Harriet over to the center to help Dennis move into his new room. Harriet, Dennis, and the neighbor entered the room together, and when they realized a third chair was needed, the neighbor briefly stepped out to get it. When she returned, another resident heard the single gunshot. The neighbor said that Harriet handed her the revolver before running back into the room, where she found Dennis slumped in his chair, his chest bleeding. Staff attempted to resuscitate him, but it was too late. “Before he passed away, he actually looked up and kind of had this puzzled look, and he said, ‘She shot me,’” a witness said…