Phillip with his wife Ashley Flick-Reese.

   

  

  

   

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

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Documents:
Death Record, State of Michigan
Burial headstone, Mt. Hope Catholic Cemetery, Lansing, MI
Burial Monument, Mt. Hope Cemetary, Lansing, MI

1900 Census, Lansing, MI
1910 Census, Lansing, MI
Newspaper Marriage Notice
Burial headstone, Mt. Hope Cemetary, Lansing, MI

Documents:
Marriage Record, State of Indiana
Burial headstone, Sunfield Cemetery, Sunfield, Eaton, MI

Obituary:
Shooting Victim's Rites Thursday
Keith Hunter Funeral to Be at Sunfield
(Special to The State Journal, SUNFIELD. Aug 1- Private funeral services for Keith Hunter. 45, who was shot and killed by his wife. Doris. 27. at Saubee lake Sunday. will be held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock from the Mapes funeral home in Sunfield. Surviving are three daughters. Marion Hunter of Houghton. Judy and Jeanne at home and three sisters. Ewilda Dais of Lansing. Beulah Davis of Hillsdale and Louise Hunter of Lansing. Rev Don Macey of Woodbury will officiate with burial in Freernire cemetery. Pallbearers will be Edward Black. Edward Duche,. Jam. Van Buren. Ward Bishop, William Sutthen and Deon Dodge.

Documents:
Marriage Record, State of Indiana
Burial Headstone, Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Lansing, MI

Notes:
Woman Acquitted Of Manslaughter
Mrs. Doris Hunter Is Freed In Shooting of Husband.
CHARLOTTE - Acquitted late yesterday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her husband. Mrs. Doris Hunter. 27, today was at the farm home of her parents near Edmore to begin a new life with her two small daughters. A circuit court jury composed of 12 men spent five and one-half hours weighing prosecution charges that the woman had deliberately intended to kill her husband. Keith, 45. following an argument last July 29 as against the defense contention that her .22 caliber gun discharged accidently after she decided to take her own life.
Trial Started Tuesday
The trial commenced Tuesday morning before Circuit Judge Archie D. McDonald and went to the jury at 11:15 a. m Thursday. Dr. W. A. Deppa. a Grand Ledge veterinarian and foreman of the jury. declined to specify how many ballots were taken before a verdict was reached. "Let's say. 'several.' " he remarked. Prosecutor Robert Carr conducted the case for the state. During the trial a dozen witnesses were on the stand but no direct evidence was offered to show that Mrs Hunter had planned to kill her husband. She did admit that in the early morning of the shooting in their Saubee lake home in northwest Eaton county and on one previous occasion she had intended to take her own life following family fights. On both occasions a bullet had been accidently exploded first, she said Mrs. Hunter told a story of having been seduced by Hunter when she was a school girl of 13 in his band music classes while he taught in a Lansing school. She related that he took indecent liberties with her and finally engaged her in immoral relations before she was 15 and how he divorced his wife and married ner 12 days after her 16th birthday. They then bought lake property on the Saubee where she managed their grocery and conducted a resort business of renting boats. bathing suits and cottages while he taught at Lake Odessa. The couple had a daughter born in March after their June marriage, who is now 10. and later another daughter now four.
Tells of Quarrels
The defendant told of eight years of quarrels and beatings by her husband and how many times she thought of leavaig him or taking her own life. Shortly before the second baby was born she did leave and started divorce proceedings, but returned after Hunter begged her to do so .Last June she was graduated from Vermontville high school to complete education interrupted by her early marriage.
On the morning of Hunter's death, Mrs, Hunter said he knocked her down and kicked her four times before she escaped from the bedroom and ran downstatr, to the bathroom. From a closet there she took the gun. discharging. it while removing it from the holster. She told of being stunned by the explosion and looking up to see her husband approaching her in a crouched position and only a few feet away. She could not remember firing the gun again. but knew it did explode and that Hunter said "Oh." and ran into the living room. There she found him lying face down. breathing. heavily. She telephoned for a physician and the sheriff. It was apparent that the large audience at the trial favored Mrs. Hunter's acquittal but there was no demonstration when the verdict was announced The defendant smiled through tears, and embraced her attorney. Foss Eldred of Ionia. former state attorney general. and then went directly to thank the jurors. Her mother Mrs. Howard Hackett, who was not placed on the witness stand because she had suffered a heart attack prior to the trials opening. sobbed audibly as her husband sought to quiet her The two little daughters of the Hunters were never at the trial. both being in school at Edmore. They were visiting their grandpar-ents the night the tragedy occurred and so had been spared direct experiences with the case.
- Battle Creek Enquirer, 30 Nov 1951