After a three-month investigation, Plant City police concluded that Hailey Megan Dempsey killed her mother, Valerie DeBoe, her 4-year-old daughter and her 4-month-old daughter on May 3, 2026, before dying by suicide. Her 2-year-old daughter survived. Investigators reconstructed the events through surveillance footage, Ring-camera video, witness interviews, cellphone data, digital evidence and forensic testing.
Police said Dempsey, 27, shot DeBoe, 55, inside the family’s home at 911 North Burton Street in the early morning hours. She then left on foot with her three daughters, carrying only a 9mm Glock. Cameras tracked her through the neighborhood along West Saunders and West Tever streets. Around 6:57 a.m., behind bushes in a front yard on West Tever Street, she fatally shot the 4-year-old and 4-month-old, fired at but missed the 2-year-old, and then shot herself. Officers found the surviving child unharmed but covered in blood roughly 50 minutes later. Dempsey later died at a hospital.
In the two days before the killings, officers responded three times to the Dempsey home for verbal disputes. On May 1, police said, Hailey confronted her husband, Jay Dempsey, after allegedly finding pornography on one of his phones. Chief Richard Mills told reporters,
“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.”
Hailey, her mother and the children stayed at a hotel that night. Officers also checked her vehicle for a tracking device and found none. On May 2 they stood by while the group retrieved clothing. No physical violence was reported in those contacts.
Jay Dempsey was detained when he returned home later on May 3 and thoroughly investigated. Cellphone data and other records placed him traveling on Interstate 4 at the time of the shootings. Police eliminated him as a suspect. He was never charged.
There were suggestions of some mental problem in digital evidence. The investigators found communications in which Hailey talked about paranoia and “postpartum psychosis” following the birth of her youngest child. The authorities made notes of the communications but did not give any official diagnosis for the mental problems and did not prove that any condition led to the murders.
Plant City police confirmed the identities of the victims, the sequence of events, the three prior police contacts, the pornography-related argument, and that Jay Dempsey was cleared. They confirmed Dempsey was responsible for the deaths and her own suicide. They did not establish that the pornography dispute was the definitive motive, nor did they issue a formal psychiatric diagnosis linking mental-health concerns to the killings.
The TMZ account and similar coverage are mostly true about the core facts of the deaths and the preceding dispute, but missing important context on motive. Police findings remain the primary authority. The surviving child is with family and reported in good health. This remains a profound loss for the Dempsey and DeBoe families.
