It's around 9:15 a..m. on Sunday, October 22, 2023.

A call is placed to the Gardner Police Department. The woman on the line reports to police that her neighbor's four children have just appeared at her door.

The children told her that they couldn't find their father, and that their mother was in bed crying.

In under five minutes, first responders arrive at the children's home on Cherry Street in Gardner.

Upstairs, they find the body of 30-year-old Breanne Pennington lying in bed.

She had been shot in the head.

Breanne's husband, Aaron Pennington, was nowhere to be found.

He had fled the home roughly 30 minutes earlier. And he hasn't been seen since.