Police Theorize Howrey Associate Was Willing Participant in Murder-Suicide
Police believe a Howrey associate and her two daughters may have died at the hands of the lawyer’s mother, who then turned the gun on herself.
Police theorize the associate, 38-year-old Elizabeth Fontaine, was a willing participant in the apparent murder-suicide that happened minutes after a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the San Clemente, Calif., home where the family was visiting, the Orange County Register reports. Fontaine and her mother, Bonnie Hoult, 67, likely believed the deputy was at the home to remove the two girls, ages 2 and 4. Gunshot residue was found on the hands of both adults, the story says.
The family was killed on the same day that a California judge gave temporary custody of the girls to an aunt. Fontaine had recently requested and received a transfer to Howrey’s Houston office but had returned to Orange County for the custody hearing.
Fontaine had alleged that her former husband, Jason, had been molesting the girls, but he was never charged. The judge in the custody case, Orange County Family Court Commissioner Thomas Schulte, had determined the allegations were groundless. Fontaine then hired a child psychologist to interview the older daughter, leading a Texas judge to block visitation by the father, the Orange County Register reports in a separate story. That prompted Schulte to order the hearing held Monday.
A sheriff’s homicide investigator who did not want his name used told the Register that Hoult was standing outside when she saw the deputy arrive at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday. Hoult ran inside and locked the doors. Police believe she then shot Fontaine and the two children in the mouths before killing herself.
Schulte had allowed Fontaine to move to Texas, although he had expressed reservations that she would try to reopen the custody case there, the second story says. The Texas psychologists included Dr. Lenore Walker, who noted that the older girl vomited when asked if anything bad had happened with her father.
Fontaine started work at Howrey’s Irvine, Calif., office in 2005 and focused on intellectual property matters. She did charitable work through her law firm, participating in a leadership initiative for girls, the Register says.
