By Jade Bulecza - bio | email
VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) –A nurse at Valdosta State Prison is behind bars charged with murdering his wife.
Lenny Joeris lives in Hamilton County, Florida. That's where the murder happened, but he works in Valdosta.
Before getting a job at the prison, he worked at South Georgia Medical Center.
You may have seen this man in Valdosta. 43-year-old Lenny Joeris worked as a nurse at Valdosta State Prison. He was arrested on Friday for the murder of his wife Lorrie Joeris.
He's accused of shooting and killing her at their home on tenth street southwest in Jasper, Florida on Sunday February 21 around 7:30 p.m.
"That night we sent her to the Gainesville, to Jacksonville, and to the medical examiner's office where an autopsy performed and the results of that ruled that the cause of death was a homicide," said Hamilton County Sheriff J. Harrell Reid.
Lorrie Joeris died that night on the way to Shands Hospital in Gainesville Florida. She was shot once in the head.
Lenny Joeris's story is that the couple went for a walk. He told investigators she usually carried a gun and that she dropped the gun and shot herself in their front yard.
Before working at the prison he worked at a Valdosta hospital.
"He worked for South Georgia Medical Center as a nurse for sometime," said Sheriff Reid.
Amber Jones is a neighbor and worked with Lorrie for five years at North Hamilton Elementary School. She says her husband and son were coming home from church that Sunday night and just missed the shooting.
"They missed it by approximately 30 seconds from seeing what had happened and being an eyewitness," said Jones.
The sheriff says there weren't any witnesses besides Lenny Joeris who made the 9-1-1 call. Their 15-year-old son and 13-year old daughter were inside but did not see it happen.
"She thought the world of those kids and so my prayers go out to those children for losing their mother," said Jones.
Joeris is in the Hamilton County Jail with no bond.
Investigators are waiting on results from tests on evidence, including gun residue tests on the suspect and his wife.
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