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Murder of the Stay family

mass shooting in Harris County, Texas, US

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ18217387 ↗
Source-derived summary

On July 9, 2014, a mass shooting occurred in a home located in northern Harris County, Texas, near Spring, a suburban area of the Greater Houston area, leaving six family members dead, including four children, and one survivor. Ronald Lee Haskell, 34, was apprehended after a standoff that lasted several hours. Haskell was related to the victims via his ex-wife.

Events

Police and court documents state that Haskell arrived at the residence, 711 Leaflet Lane, dressed as a FedEx employee. The house is in the Enchanted Oaks subdivision Section 3, in an unincorporated area outside of the Spring census-designated place but with a Spring postal address. Haskell was reportedly searching for his ex-wife, the sister of the mother living in the home. The door was answered by the mother's 15-year-old daughter, who initially did not recognize him; he asked for her parents and she told him they weren't home. Haskell left, but returned a short time later and told the girl he was her ex-uncle. When she tried to close the door on him, Haskell forced his way inside, tied her up, and made her lie face-down; Haskell did the same to the other four children and their parents when they returned to the house. Haskell then reportedly shot all seven people in the back of the head "execution-style" when they would not tell him where his ex-wife was.

Editorial summary

“Murder of the Stay family” enters the record as mass shooting in Harris County, Texas, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Murder, Stay and family can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2014—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Murder, Stay and family.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Murder of the Stay family” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Murder, Stay and family provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18217387. Authority coordinates are 30.041, -95.442. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of the Stay family”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of the Stay family primary sources, Murder of the Stay family archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of the Stay family”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murder of the Stay family” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.