Shaterica Anderson.Photo: GoFundMe

Shaterica Anderson

Police found 28-year-old Shaterica Anderson dead in her Spring home early Monday from multiple gunshot wounds, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in anews release.

They were responding to a call from the sister of Johnny Ray Landry, 48, who contacted his sister around 2:20 a.m. to say “he shot his wife,” according to the release.

Landry now is charged with Anderson’s murder, and the sheriff’s office says he’s on the run with a warrant issued for his arrest after he fled the scene of the shooting before deputies arrived. He was last known to be driving a silver, four-door Ford Flex with Texas license plate number NNV-6613.

Family members of both Anderson and Landry said they were a common-law couple who had been together since 2013, and that Landry is the father of Anderson’s five kids, reportsFOX 26.

The children, who range in age from 3 to 9, were sleeping at the time of the killing and had not been told as of Tuesday that their mother was dead, Anderson’s family members said.

Johnny Ray Landry.courtesy Harris County Sheriff’s Office

Johnny Ray Landry

Anderson’s mother “never expected to be the primary caregiver to her young grandchildren after her rock, her precious beautiful daughter died at the hands of her grandchildren’s father, Johnny Landry,” said aGoFundMe page seeking donations on behalf of the victim’s family.

Anderson “was a brave young woman who was a recent sexual assault survivor,” according to the post. “She wanted to advocate for women and have her actions serve as an example to encourage other women to speak out against their own experienced abuse and violence.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The suspect’s sister defended him.

“He didn’t kill his wife,” Sandra Landry told FOX 26.

“When he lost his mom, that was like the next thing to him, was [Anderson],” she said. “And that was it. And it was like his world just opened up. I mean, when you say love somebody, and a husband [who] love his wife and his kids, and would go beyond and above for them and make sure — he made sure.”

But Ashton described his sister’s loss as “cold-blooded murder,” reports KHOU. “It was just pure evil what he did to her. For him to do that with the kids in the house… thank God that they stayed asleep.”

According to the outlet, the suspect’s sister told investigators that Anderson and Landry had been struggling over a gun. But Ashton, after visiting the scene, said it appeared to him that Anderson hadn’t put up a fight and was asleep when she was shot.

Landry previously had been arrested for allegedly making a terroristic threat towards Anderson in a family violence case, and was free at the time of the killing after posting bond on that charge, sheriff’s deputies confirmed to KHOU. It was not immediately clear whether he’d entered a plea to that charge.

“My sister was the most loving person that you could ever encounter,” Ashton said. “She had a beautiful smile. Smile for days!”

“I watched her get two or three jobs just to make sure [her kids] would have something for Christmas or their birthdays,” he said. “She always made sure that her kids never went without.”

The sheriff’s office asked anyone with information to call 713-274-9100 or CrimeStoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com