GARDENDALE, Ala. — Relatives of victims killed this week in a central Alabama triple murder have been left with more memories than answers. However, those memories offer comfort just days after the murder and subsequent search for the shooter left area residents and officials confused and on edge.

“They were innocent victims, not just the three who were killed and not just the one that witnessed it,” Terrill Hogeland, nephew of Don Foshee, said. “We’re all innocent victims.”

Foshee, 69, along with his wife, Bonnie Reeves Foshee, 65, and Bonnie’s sister, Dana Reeves Lever, were tragically killed on Wednesday at Lever’s home in Gardendale by Lever’s ex-husband, Kenneth Dion Lever, who later took his own life in a bank parking lot in Escambia County, Florida. 

The Foshees and Lever were packing the car to travel to Chicago for Lever’s son graduation from U.S. Navy boot camp when they were ambushed. The trip highlighted the close-knit nature of the family, who were making the trip together to celebrate a milestone.

“It’s a family where everybody tries to pitch in,” Hogeland said. “We are extremely, extremely, extremely close.”

Prior to the murders, Dana Lever, had filed a protective order against him because she said he was harassing and stalking her and their juvenile daughter. The order, issued in December, was signed by a judge in Alabama. Lever was facing charges of sexual abuse of a minor in York County, Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press.

Soon after the shootings, Police quickly identified Lever as the prime suspect in the shootings. After a manhunt lasted several hours, police said they believed Lever had left the area. Lever had been living in Santa Rose County, Florida, and police believed he might have returned to that area.

Days later, surviving family members remember the victims and the unique qualities they’ll cherish beyond the loss.

Don Foshee grew the best tomatoes in the world. That’s one of the things Hogeland remembers the most.

“I think everybody in the family has a bag of tomatoes on their table that he gave them,” Hogeland said Thursday.

The Vietnam veteran was also the family’s fix-it man — he liked to stay busy tinkering with his nephew’s four-wheeler and planning hunting trips with family at his south Alabama property.

Hogeland said Bonnie Foshee took her role as the eldest of four sisters seriously.

“She always took care of everything,” Hogeland said. “She was kind of the ‘queen bee’ of the sisters.”

She and the other sisters definitely took their role as protector seriously when it came to their youngest sister, Dana. When Dana Lever moved back to Alabama last year after her divorce, the sisters housed her and her daughter until she could get settled and get her own place.

“Dana was the baby and they were always really motherly toward her,” Hogeland said. “She was a good bit younger so all my uncles looked out for her too, it was kind of like they had a little sister, too.”

Meanwhile, Hogeland said Lever’s world revolved around her children — she had two adult sons and a 11-year-old daughter. As she focused on moving forward with her life, Hogeland said he was impressed of her constant smile.

“No matter how much was on her shoulders, she still tried to be positive and uplift the people around her,” he said.

Hogeland said the surviving sisters, his mother and aunt, are devastated by the loss of their two sisters and brother-in-law, but the entire family is focused on rallying around the 11-year-old daughter left behind.

Although a permanent custody arrangement has not yet been determined, Dana Lever’s daughter is currently with her family. Hogeland asked that those in the community keep the family in their prayers as they try to move forward from the tragedy. 

Davis is the editor of the Gardendale, Alabama North Jefferson News.