Wife of murdered Kansas City security officer also works security
Kansas City MO December 18 2018
Lee McNowelly was going to get out of overnight security guard work, his wife said.
The new year was supposed to find her 20-year-old Independence husband back in school, determined to get out of this tedious and dangerous business — work that instead has left him dead.
“He was so young,” Lorrie McNowelly said Sunday night. Her husband was found shot in a car in a south Kansas City industrial area early Sunday morning where he was on his guard post.
Lorrie knows the work her husband did. She is a security guard as well.
They were high school sweethearts. They met in theater at Raytown High School. Within six months, she said, they knew they would be married.
Now she and his family are asking for help getting information to police about what happened. Police have reported no information on any suspects as the investigation continues.
Police found Lee McNowelly about 5:30 a.m. with the fatal gunshot wound inside his black Nissan in the parking lot at 8701 Elmwood Avenue.
“He was a family man,” his wife said. “He took care of me.”
Lee McNowelly loved and respected his guns, loved video games, and his wife, Lorrie McNowelly said.
“Guns are how we protect ourselves,” she said. “But he would never senselessly harm someone. Someone didn’t have that moral center and it took my husband’s life.”
Lorrie McNowelly said that for her justice in her husband’s death would come if the shooter could feel her pain.
“That would be justice,” she said. “I’m shattered.”
Police ask that anyone with information call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
McNowelly’s family asks that anyone wanting to donate to help with their costs contact St. Paul United Methodist Church in Independence.
Kansas City Star
