A Kalispell teen accused of killing a 67-year-old man told authorities the man’s death was linked to a dispute over money and sex.
Heather M. Henson, 19, is charged with deliberate homicide in the death of Larry Kingsley. She is being held on $250,000 bail.
According to investigative reports, Henson used a rifle and a pistol to shoot Kingsley about 15 times. His body was found last weekend at the Sylvan Lake Campground, southeast of Libby in the Kootenai National Forest.
Henson’s boyfriend, 17-year-old Stephen M. Thomas of Kalispell, also is charged with deliberate homicide, along with tampering with evidence and felony theft.
Henson told investigators she met Kingsley on July 8 at a bar in Libby, and agreed to take $2,300 from him to help launch her career as a writer. Henson said she lost the money and Kingsley implied she would have to repay him with sex.
Henson told investigators that she and her boyfriend went with Kingsley to his campsite on Sylvan Lake. She said she had sex with Kingsley, but he became increasingly jealous of Thomas over the next several days, at one point holding a knife to Thomas’ throat.
Henson told authorities that on the night of July 12, she fired a rifle into the air and then turned it on Kingsley and shot him in the chest. She said Thomas also shot at Kingsley.
Henson said she believed her life was in danger and that Kingsley would have killed her if she hadn’t shot him.
After the shooting, Henson and Thomas returned to Kalispell and left a message with a family member saying they had just killed a man. The family member notified authorities, who found Kingsley’s body on July 13.