Police officials said Marine killed in a gunfight after going on a shooting spree in Texas also is suspected of killing his wife in North Carolina.
According to the Associated Press, Jacksonville, N.C., police said 21-year-old Rubi Estefania Smith of Bakersfield, Calif., was found dead Sunday afternoon in a motel room near Camp Lejeune. She was found several hours after the Marine was killed.
Rubi is the wife of Esteban Smith, a 23-year-old Marine who died Sunday in a gunfight with Texas authorities.
Police spokeswoman Beth Purcell says Rubi Estefania Smith appears to have died from a knife wound.
Esteban Smith is suspected in a West Texas shooting rampage that left one woman dead and five others wounded. An assault rifle, handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from Smith's vehicle.
According to NBC News, authorities did not give a motive for Smith's Sunday shooting spree. Smith was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The deadly shooting began about 4:30 a.m. when Smith, opened fire on a vehicle in Eden, Texas, wounding an unidentified woman, police said.
The gunman then went to a convenience store in Brady, in McCulloch County, where he shot and injured two more people sitting in their vehicle, police said. They were treated and released.
After the second confrontation, Smith headed back to Eden, where he fired at another vehicle at about 5:30 a.m. That victim was also treated and released.
Around 6 a.m. Concho County sheriff's deputies responded to a call of shots fired in Eola. Authorities found the body of Alicia Torres, 41, who was killed in her car.
Torre's cousin spoke to the media about his family member's death.
"It's really random," Ernest Torres, cousin of Alicia Torres, told the Daily News. "She was a nice person. She didn't have any enemies. Why someone would shoot her, we don't know."
