Double shooting in Mission ends in suicide

Two women are hospitalized after apparently being shot by a family member early Sunday morning in St. Ignatius before the man turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

The county dispatch center received a 9-1-1 call at 3:52 a.m. on July 23, and Lake County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene on Bear Track Lane and found Leslie Lee Peone, 58, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Two women — Peone's estranged wife and daughter — were also found shot at the scene, but are expected to recover after being Lifeflighted to St. Patrick hospital in Missoula where they were listed in stable condition following surgery Monday.

Peone and his wife, Geraldine Linsebigler, 47, apparently met up at the Good Ol' Days celebration in Mission Saturday, and returned to Peone's house later that evening, Undersheriff Mike Sargeant said.

"Both of them appeared to have been drinking," Sargeant said of the weekend festivities.

Their daughter, Tashina Peone, 25, showed up at the house later that evening, and attempted to get her mother to leave the residence, Sargeant said, after Linsebigler and Leslie Peone began to argue. Papers found at Leslie Peone's house indicated the couple was in the process of or had just been divorced, the undersheriff said.

Their daughter managed to convince her mother to leave in Linsebigler's car, Sargeant said, when Peone grabbed a .357 magnum Colt Python revolver and came out the front door as the women were preparing to drive away.

Peone then shot his daughter in the back and Linsebigler in the left arm, Sargeant said. The bullet exited the arm and went into her upper torso, he said.

The incident was apparently witnessed by Leslie Peone's son, Pasquinel Peone, 18, and Tashina Peone's husband, Solomon Bolen, both of whom had arrived at the residence shortly before the shooting, Sargeant said.

Leslie Peone then turned the gun on the two men, firing four shots, as they fled for some woods nearby. Neither man was hit, Sargeant said.

"We believe there were four shots fired," he said, since the revolver holds six total.

Leslie Peone reentered the house and reloaded the revolver with a speed loader, Sargeant said, stepped out the back door and turned the gun on himself. His body was taken to the state crime lab in Missoula, where authorities confirmed that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Sargeant said.

Both Linsebigler and Tashina Peone had surgery Monday, but were not in well enough condition to speak with investigators, Sargeant said. He said they will be interviewed when they are in a more stable medical condition.