Husband killed pregnant wife in front of their 2 kids as family was about to celebrate Father’s Day

A 36-year-old man in Texas will spend the remainder of his days behind bars for killing his pregnant wife and their unborn child, shooting the 37-year-old woman as the couple’s two young children watched in horror one day before Father’s Day.

Bexar County Criminal District Judge Jennifer Pena sentenced Dillon Leigh Meckel on Wednesday to life without parole for the 2021 slaying of Laura Placker, court records show. Placker was eight months pregnant at the time of her death.

Before sentencing, Meckel pleaded no contest to one count of capital murder involving multiple persons. The judge credited Meckel with 1,403 days of time already served.

In the indictment, prosecutors said that Meckel “intentionally and knowingly caused the death of [Placker] by shooting her with a deadly weapon.” Because she was pregnant, prosecutors also accused Meckel of having “caused the death of another individual, to wit: an unborn child of Placker while said unborn child was in gestation of Placker.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, the shooting took place at a Motel 6 in the 7500 block of Louis Pasteur Drive on the morning of Saturday, June 19, 2021.

Local 911 dispatchers alerted police to an incident at the motel after several people called to report that they had heard multiple gunshots fired from one of the rooms at approximately 9:45 a.m. First responders arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and located Placker inside the motel room. They perform life-saving emergency treatment, but she died at the scene from her injuries at approximately 10:40 a.m.

The apparent cause of death was listed as a gunshot wound to the head.

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The couple had been staying at the hotel as part of their Father’s Day celebration, San Antonio Fox affiliate KABB reported. Father’s Day in 2021 fell on June 20, one day after the murder.

Responding officers said the two young children, ages 4 and 6, were in the room when authorities found Placker and had witnessed their mother’s murder. The kids were removed from the scene and placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that after the shooting, investigators found Meckel staying in a room at the same motel. According to the indictment, officers questioned him in his room, and he readily admitted to fatally shooting Placker. The indictment and accompanying police report did not speculate as to Meckel’s motive for killing Placker.

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