A North Carolina mom’s murder-suicide rampage has claimed another young victim.
Makayla Woods, 15, passed away Wednesday afternoon after relatives made the heart-rending decision to remove her from life support, authorities in Greensboro, N.C., said.
Woods is the fourth minor to die in connection with Mary Ann Holder‘s shooting spree.
The tragic news came after cops revealed Holder gave a $10,000 check to ex-lover Randy Lamb the day before she blazed a trail of carnage that has rocked the leafy suburb in which she lived.
The check, which Holder had enough funds to cover, was written to Lamb’s wife, purportedly as an out-of-court settlement for an “alienation of affection” lawsuit the wife threatened to file, a spokesman for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office told the Daily News.
The spokesman said Holder, 36, handed the check to Randy Lamb in the parking lot of a Greensboro Wal-Mart Saturday.
Investigators believe she later returned home, opened fire on four minors sleeping under her roof, left two suicide notes in different handwriting in two different rooms and then met Lamb Sunday morning in an airport parking lot, where she shot him in the arm.
After wounding Lamb, Holder drove to retrieve her 14-year-old son Zachary Smith from a sleepover, shot him in the backseat of her SUV and then killed herself, cops said.
Holder’s 17-year-old son Robert Smith died where he slept in the family’s house. Her 8-year-old niece Hannaleigh Suttles, son Zachary, and family friend Makayla Woods died later at the hospital.
“We still don’t know the exact motive, so we’re trying to address every possible angle to see if anything illegal could have caused this or whether it was just a stressful situation that triggered everything,” Col. Randy Powers of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office told The News.
He said Holder and Lamb had been involved in a lengthy extra-marital affair, and that Lamb’s wife was actively pursuing her lawsuit.
“Attorneys from both sides had been going back and forth on a settlement amount, and it appears the two parties had agreed outside their attorneys to settle for $10,000,” Powers said.
“She gave (Randy Lamb) the check made out to his wife. There were sufficient funds in her account to cover it,” he said.
Powers said the shooting rampage has shocked people who knew Holder.
“We’ve heard that she was well-liked. Nobody has walked up to me and said she was really bad. Just the opposite. They say she loved the kids,” Powers said.
Powers said Holder’s suicide notes expressed sorrow for the pain she caused. He said at least one note was lengthy.
Holder’s nephew Richard Suttles, 17, was still clinging to life in critical condition Wednesday.
It was Lamb’s wife who first called 911 after learning that her husband had been shot.
“I don’t know exactly what happened but my husband’s been shot,” the wife said on the 911 recording. “This woman who he had an affair with, she was there when he got there, and she shot him.”
Lamb’s wife sought a restraining order earlier this year claiming Holder repeatedly harassed her, sent her naked pictures, followed her to the mall and tried to run her off a neighborhood road.
ndillon@nydailynews.com
