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A harrowing report out of Florida described a Hailey Dempsey killing her mother, two of her children, and attempting to kill a third before taking her own life.

Now, an odd update in the case may shed light on what was going on before the triple-murder-suicide.

According to investigators, ahead of the homicides, Dempsey got into a fearsome argument with her husband.

The confrontation was about … porn. What?

It was a triple-murder-suicide, and it was almost worse

On May 3, 2026, 27-year-old Hailey Dempsey killed her 55-year-old mother, Valerie DeBoe, and then two of her children, police say.

Dempsey carried out these killings using a gun.

The first victim was her mother, before she fled DeBoe’s Tampa residence with her kids — only to turn her firearm on them.

One of the victims was her 4-month-old. The other was her 4-year-old.

Investigators determined that Dempsey also attempted to fatally shoot her 2-year-old, but missed.

Moments later, police say, Dempsey died by suicide using the same gun.

Family annihilators are stereotypically men who feel that they’ve lost control or that their status is in jeopardy due to their family, but it is not unheard of for a woman to do this.

(People are complex and gender is far from one-size-fits-all, but societal expectations related to men, power, and status are very different.)

Often, but not always, severe mental illness is a factor.

Across social media, numerous people have brought up that Dempsey had a 4-month-old baby, questioning if what transpired may have been related to postpartum psychosis.

This was not about her husband’s phone (but that fight was likely a symptom)

On Thursday, August 13, Plant City Police Chief Richard Mills held a press conference following the conclusion of the investigation.

Mills confirmed what we now know about Dempsey’s final moments and the lives that police say that she took with her.

Additionally, he shared that police had responded to the Dempsey home three times in the days leading up to the triple-murder-suicide.

Mills detailed that two days before the shooting, on May 1, Dempsey and her husband, Jay, had a “verbal altercation” over porn on his cell phone.

He headed off any assumptions, clarifying: “It wasn’t cheating or anything like that, evidently it was just porn, and they were having an argument over that. I think that’s what everything stemmed from.”

Jay, the husband, had spent the previous night at a friend’s house amidst conflicts with his wife.

Sometimes, people get bent out of shape over harmless things, including pornography. But it’s important to emphasize that whatever was on Jay’s phone is not to blame.

It’s clear that Hailey Dempsey urgently needed help — perhaps several types of help — in the days, weeks, and perhaps months leading up to this senseless tragedy.

Now, her family has lost her mother, two of her children, and the woman herself. A woman who might have made very different choices, if we can even call these final moments of violence “choices.”

Our hearts go out to surviving loved ones. Especially to the 2-year-old whom Dempsey “narrowly missed” before taking her own life.