MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In the minutes before Jody Lee Hunt capped a daylong killing spree by shooting himself, he phoned 911 to explain “none of it’s justified and none of it’s right, but what’s done is done.”
During a recorded conversation that served as the epilogue to Hunt’s murderous day, he spoke of a business grudge that led him to gun down the owner of a rival towing company, and the jealousy that sparked the shootings of his ex-girlfriend and two of her lovers.
He also apologized to the 911 dispatcher for troubling police and vowed to end their manhunt via suicide, according to a 911 transcript MetroNews received Thursday under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The 911 transcript appears here, with names and addresses redacted per police policy and MetroNews obscuring other portions in which Hunt made allegations against his victims.
Hunt began the Dec. 1 rampage by shooting Sharon Kay Berkshire, 39, and her new boyfriend Michael David Frum, 28, at a Cheat Lake home. Next he shot and killed Doug Brady, 45, inside a garage at Doug’s Towing in Westover. The final victim was Hunt’s cousin, 43-year-old Jody Taylor, who police believe to have been romantically involved with Berkshire.
“It’s not fair for them to lose their life if I don’t lose my life, sir,” Hunt told the dispatcher. “That’s the way it goes.”
About 90 minutes after the call, police found Hunt dead of a self-inflicted gun wound in the southern part of Monongalia County near Everettville.
Hunt, who operated J&J Towing, complained to county commissioners that Doug’s Towing and other competitors were stealing jobs from him by responding to dispatch calls out of rotation.
He also professed heartbreak over the end of a two-year relationship with Berkshire, who twice filed restraining orders against Hunt only to drop them weeks later.
“I wish when people said ‘I love you’ they meant it and were honest and loyal and truthful,” Hunt said on the call.
“I’m deeply sorry for the problems I’ve caused but there’s reasoning behind what I did.”
Hunt’s violent history traced back to 1999 in Winchester, Va., when he held an earlier ex-girlfriend hostage for seven hours at gunpoint. That resulted in prison time for Hunt, who also had a 1994 conviction in Pennsylvania for trespassing and theft.
With the manhunt stretching beyond eight hours, Hunt assured the 911 dispatcher he wouldn’t harm police.
“I’m not out to hurt any of your officers.” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen to them. That’s not my motive for this. … The last thing I want to do is have an office hurt. That’s not my intentions, sir.
“I’ve caused enough problems throughout this whole day, with the whole ordeal, and I’m sorry about that.”