Clayton News Daily

By Daniel Silliman

dsilliman@news-daily.com

A 36-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son checked into a Motel 6 Sunday night. They didn't have any luggage with them, but the woman had her purse and a gun.

The clerk at the 7233 Davidson Parkway motel told Clayton County Police that the woman, Donne Marie Slonaker, checked in at around 7 p.m., and rented the room for just one night.

When Slonaker didn't check out Monday morning, the employee entered the room, finding the dead bodies of the woman and her son.

"She had shot her son in the back of his head, and then shot herself," said Police spokeswoman, Sonja Sanchez.

Police responded to the scene near Interstate 675 and Ga. Highway 138, in Stockbridge, at about 11:30 a.m., Monday, but the deaths were quickly determined to be murder-suicide. A lot of questions remained unanswered that night.

Police do not know, Sanchez said, why the woman, who was from Warner Robins, Ga., left home. They don't know why she came to Clayton County. They don't know why she was depressed and why she killed her son and herself.

The motel employee told the police that the woman seemed depressed.

Police did track the gun Monday. A .380-caliber handgun, it was reported stolen by Slonaker's neighbor in Houston County. Sanchez said the neighbor reportedly suspected Slonaker, saying the woman had been in the house, using the computer, right before the handgun went missing.

The investigation is ongoing.