Family mourns mother killed at Pleasant Hill Price Chopper: ‘Amy is in heaven now’
In early April, Amy Coon updated her Facebook page photo to raves from friends.
“Beautiful”
“Looking Good!”
“Absolutely gorgeous!!!”
On Tuesday, one day after the 45-year-old mother and grandmother was killed — shot, perhaps randomly, in the parking lot of the Price Chopper in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, the town where she grew up and graduated from high school — the messages were of gratitude for the life she lived, and grief over her loss.
“My sweet angel,” began a Facebook post by her niece Kenna Brianne, who wrote of how her “Aunt Amy” helped raise her and, for a time, housed her and her dad, Coon’s brother, when Kenna was small, and “supported me all throughout my school years.”
“Aunt Amy believed in me and my future,” she wrote. “She truly was a light in this evil and cruel world we live in. I never saw her without a smile on her face. She was a daughter, a mother, grandmother, and friend.
Her murder is still very hard for my family to wrap our heads around. But Aunt Amy is in heaven now. With no pain, no suffering, and stress-free living eternally with Jesus. Till we meet again Aunt Amy I love you.”
The Star reached out to family and friends of Coon, but they declined requests for interviews.
GoFundMe and Venmo aim to raise money
On Monday, Memorial Day, Coon, who has lived most recently in nearby Stasburg, was in the parking lot of Cosentino’s Price Chopper, 2101 SW State Route 7, when at just before 4:30 p.m., 27-year-old Allen T. Price of Pleasant Hill allegedly opened fire with a rifle, killing Coon and wounding a 16-year-old employee as he retrieved shopping carts for the grocery store.
Price, who was out of jail on bond following a charge of harassment on family members, turned his gun on himself and on Wednesday was in Pleasant Hill police custody in a local hospital. Price has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault or attempted first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action.
A GoFundMe campaign for the teen worker, who remained in intensive care, had raised more than $33,000 of a $35,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon.
A fundraising campaign for Brayden Smith — Coon’s son, who has a wife and son — has been established through social media with requests for donations to be sent directly to Smith’s Venmo account, @Brayden-Smith87.
“Amy was a loving mother, a beloved daughter, a grandma (Grammy) who enjoyed watching her grandkids grow up,” said another post by Courtney Thomas with Brayden Smith and his wife, Cheyenne Struffmann-Smith. “Amy’s passing was completely unexpected, and she will be missed by so many.”
A devoted grandmother fighting cancer
On her Facebook page, Coon noted that she graduated from Pleasant Hill High School in 1999 and, since 2014, has been employed as an aviation insurance broker for Aviation Solution, part of the Marsh McLennan insurance companies.
In Strasburg, Coon lived in a modest house: white siding with a tattered American flag on a pole in the yard, a milk jug, an antique push mower, a red weather-worn door set against the side of the home.
“She was a good neighbor to have,” said Richard Dale, who lived next door, and described Coon an attentive grandmother, with family nearby.
He also said that not long after Coon moved in, about three years ago, she had been diagnosed with a type of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer with a cure rate of 80% and higher. The Star was unable to verify the account with family.
“She fought cancer for about a year,” Dale said. “She beat it. She was cancer free for about a year. About three or four months ago, it came back. She was going to treatment again. I talked to her off and on. She said, ‘It’s going fine. It’s going fine.’ She was prepared to beat it a second time.”
Plans were being made to hold a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening at Price Chopper, at the site of the shooting. Attendees are asked to begin gathering at 7 p.m., with the vigil at 8 p.m.