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Wood County woman charged with killing two, including father

Two men died Sunday after being shot at this residence on Sunshine Mountain Road outside Williamstown, according to the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. Hillary Dennison, 27, has been charged with two counts of murder. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

WILLIAMSTOWN — A Wood County woman faces murder charges after she allegedly shot and killed her father and another man identified by investigators as her fiance.

Hillary Paige Dennison, 27, of 1250 Sunshine Mountain Road, Williamstown, was arrested on two counts of murder Sunday after Wood County Sheriff’s deputies responded to her residence following a 911 call that reported two people had been injured in a nail gun accident, Sheriff Steve Stephens said Monday.

There they found two men who “had been shot with a firearm,” he said.

“It is believed that the nail gun exploding was just a fabrication on her part,” Stephens said.

Harold Dennison, 62, Hillary Dennison’s father who also lived at the residence, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff said.

Hillary Paige Dennison

The other man was Beau Wasmer, 26, of 1282 Sunshine Mountain Road, Williamstown, who was taken by ambulance to Marietta Memorial Hospital. Stephens said Wasmer, who reportedly was Hillary Dennison’s fiance, succumbed to his injuries “an hour or so” after being transported.

After initially claiming a nail gun malfunction caused the wounds, Hillary Dennison said in a Mirandized interview with a detective that she “fired a gun intentionally at Harold Dennison which subsequently killed both victims,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Wood County Magistrate Court.

Evidence in the attached garage where the incident took place and statements from witnesses support that, the complaint says.

Stephens did not discuss a motive for the shootings, other than to say it is believed to be domestic in nature but the investigation is ongoing.

Hillary Dennison was being held without bond at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County. Because murder is a capital crime, bond must be set in Wood County Circuit Court.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

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