New York Granny Carried Out Chilling Murder-Suicide To Give Son Full Custody Of Child: Report

A court filing in New York’s Manhattan has unveiled a chilling plot involving a murder-suicide orchestrated by a 65-year-old woman, Kathleen Leigh, to secure custody of her granddaughter.

The court papers allege that Leigh killed the mother of her granddaughter, Marisa Galloway, before taking her own life, all to ensure her son, Zachariah Reed, would gain full custody of the child.

The killing unfolded last month when Leigh fatally shot Galloway, a 45-year-old special education teacher, on a quiet Manhattan street, the New York Post reported. Leigh then took her own life, leaving behind a heartbreaking situation for the victim’s family.

According to the court documents, Leigh’s motive was to manipulate custody arrangements in favor of her son. “Clearly, (Reed’s) mother had a deliberate plan to kill Marisa in order to provide custody for her son,” the court papers charge, according to the New York-based tabloid.

“Unfortunately, (Reed) has demonstrated an absolute intention to further those same goals of his mother as he has refused to provide us with any access to Lili at all in almost 3 weeks.” Galloway’s parents, Nancy and John Galloway, have now filed an emergency court petition seeking custody of their granddaughter, Lili.

The Galloways claim that Reed has taken Lili to his “multi-million dollar home” in Chicago under the guise of mourning and has since barred them from any contact with the child. The Galloways allege that Reed’s actions align with his mother’s sinister plan. In their petition, the Galloways are asking the Manhattan Supreme Court to grant them custody of Lili, as stipulated in a 2022 custody agreement between Marisa Galloway and Reed.

They are also requesting that Reed be required to remain in New York City until Lili turns 18 to maintain her relationship with her grandparents and her half-sister, Mariel, who was born from Marisa’s relationship with a sperm donor. Nancy Galloway, in an emotional affidavit, described her close bond with Lili. “When we didn’t see Lili, we would FaceTime almost every day,” she said. “We had a hands-on relationship with her, seeing her two to three times a month.”