STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—A northern Colorado woman told a deputy she shot her 9-year-old son who was found dead in the family home, according to a court document.
The document says Lisa Marie Lesyshen (leh-SY’-shen) made the statement while speaking with a Routt County sheriff’s deputy, The Steamboat Pilot & Today reported Friday ( ).
Lesyshen told the deputy she shot her son, Asher Lesyshen-Kirlan, then shot herself, according to the document, which was a court order to collect a sample of Lesyshen’s DNA. The document says Lesyshen told the deputy she knows her son is dead.
The document also states Lesyshen bought .22-caliber ammunition the day before the shooting.
Lesyshen’s husband, Michael Kirlan, called 911 at about 3 a.m. Wednesday to report the boy had been shot in their home in Oak Creek, about 10 miles south of Steamboat Springs. Kirlan told the dispatcher his wife was upstairs with a gun and was telling him to kill her.
When deputies arrived, they found the boy dead and Lesyshen in an upstairs bedroom, unconscious with a gunshot wound, according to a search warrant affidavit. Investigators found a small, short-barrel revolver on a bed beneath the sheets, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy performed Wednesday listed the preliminary cause of Asher’s death as multiple gunshot wounds. Asher was a third-grader at Soda Creek Elementary School in Steamboat Springs.
Court records indicate Lesyshen and Kirlan were in the process of separating. Authorities said Asher was their only child.
Routt County Sheriff Garrett Wiggins said Lesyshen was being guarded by deputies at a hospital but had not been arrested. He said doctors removed a breathing tube from her Thursday.
Wiggins said Lesyshen was at Denver Health Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said Lesyshen was not listed as a patient there.
Wiggins said Lesyshen’s mother was with her at the hospital and that Lesyshen had asked for an attorney.
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Information from: Steamboat Pilot & Today,
