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He was parrolled in 1997, but the pattern was already established. Missouri officials would later describe him as having a decadesl long history of violence against women. By 2007, another blow struck. David suffered a stroke that caused brain damage, adding physical trauma to his already fragile mental state.
By his early 50s, he was a broken man living in Jefferson City, a ticking time bomb, waiting for the right trigger. That trigger would come in the form of a woman named Angela Gilpin. Angela Ivonne Gilpin was 45 years old, married to Rodney Dean Gilpin, and the mother of two sons. She lived in the same Jefferson City neighborhood as David Hoer and what began as neighborly acquaintance would escalate into a dangerous obsession that would cost three people their lives.
Angela and David began a long-term affair while Angela was separated from her husband Rodney. For David, this relationship became everything. Angela represented hope, love, perhaps even redemption. But affairs are complicated things and families have a way of calling their members home. By August 2009, Angela had made a decision that would seal everyone’s fate.
She chose to reconcile with her husband. She and Rodney, who shared two sons in years of history, decided to repair their marriage and moved back in together. For most people, this would be a disappointment, perhaps a heartbreak. For David Hoer, it was a declaration of war. The threats began immediately. David made numerous threatening remarks about Angela, telling anyone who would listen that if he couldn’t have her, no one could
These weren’t idol threats from a scorned lover. They were promises from a man with a history of violence and an arsenal of weapons. Angela knew she was in danger. She filed a verified petition for an order of protection against David, documenting that he was stalking and intimidating her on a daily basis. In her own handwriting, she described how David knows everywhere I go, who I go with, who comes to my home.
Most chilling of all, she explicitly expressed fear that David might shoot her and her husband. A tragic prophecy of what was to come. September 28th, 2009. a date that would be forever burned into the memory of Jefferson City, Missouri. That night, 54year-old David Hoer made the decision that would define the rest of his life and end two others.
He entered the apartment of Angela and Rodney Gilpin. And near the doorway of their home, the threshold where they should have been safe, he gunned them down. Angela Gilpin, 45 years old, died trying to rebuild her marriage. Rodney Dean Gilpin, 61 years old, died trying to protect the life he and his wife were rebuilding together. A neighbor discovered their bodies the next morning.
Forever traumatized by the scene of violence that greeted them. But David Hoer wasn’t finished. While their bodies lay cooling in their apartment, he was already executing the next phase of his plan, flight. Police immediately suspected David’s involvement. The threats, the protective order, the history of violence, it all pointed to one man.
But when they went to find him, David Hoer was already gone. Fleeing Missouri with the desperate energy of a man who knew his time was up. Authorities used cell phone tracking to locate him in neighboring Oklahoma within hours of the murders. When an Oklahoma officer tried to pull him over, David led police on a high-speed chase, a final act of defiance against the law his father had once served.
When the chase ended, and David stepped out of his vehicle, he wasn’t surrendering. He was challenging fate itself, taunting the officers with words that would haunt everyone present. shoot me and get it over with. But the officers didn’t shoot. Instead, they arrested him and discovered the mobile armory he’d been carrying, 15 firearms, including rifles and handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a bulletproof vest, and a Sten submachine gun that investigators suspected was used in the murders.
Then they found the note, a chilling message that read like a manifesto. If you’re going with someone, do not lie to them. If you do not, this could happen to you. It was David’s twisted justification, his warning to the world about the consequences of betraying someone like him.