LANCASTER, Ohio --
For seven minutes, Stephanie J. Adams screamed and pleaded with her former husband not to point the gun at her. "Kevin, no, Kevin, no, Kevin, no," she said. "Please don't do this."
He responded by repeatedly calling her obscene names. The exchange was recorded on a 911 call that Stephanie Adams made from her cellphone at 1:20 a.m. yesterday from her home at 196 Cleveland Ave. on Lancaster's south side.
The line stayed open while the dispatcher can be heard yelling, "Hello, hello, hello? Ma'am?" The dispatcher figured out the general location of the cellphone call and dispatched officers. The first officer to arrive reported hearing a possible gunshot at 1:29 a.m. Another officer reported two more shots fired at 1:30 a.m.
By the time it was over, three people were dead.
The bodies of Stephanie Adams, 39, and her friend, off-duty Lancaster Police Officer Randy Bartow, 56, of Logan, were found inside the house.
Kevin J. Adams, 40, also was found in the house and was taken to Fairfield Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:24 a.m.
All three are believed to have died from gunshot wounds, police said.
Kevin and Stephanie Adams, who had been married for more than 20 years, were granted a dissolution of the marriage in May. She recently went back to using her maiden name, Seifert, said Brian Darfus, sales manager at Darfus Realty, where she had worked as a real-estate agent for eight years. Stephanie Adams also worked as a server at Roosters in Lancaster, Darfus said.
"She was always bright and cheery, no matter what was going on in her life," he said.
Darfus said that her former husband, however, had a darker personality and his "crazy" behavior toward her had once gotten him kicked out of Roosters.
"Her ex-husband was very possessive and couldn't deal with them being divorced," Darfus said.
Bartow, who had been a Lancaster police officer since 1993, was remembered yesterday as the ideal neighborhood cop.
He was known for carrying a supply of fresh dollar bills that he would take from his pocket and make into tiny, origami shirts and pants for the children he encountered, said Kelly Bosch, 26.
She recalled saving many a folded dollar as a child. More recently, the officer had given her 5-year-old daughter one of the tiny keepsakes, Bosch said.
"He always made you laugh and smile," Bosch said. "The Lancaster Police Department needs more officers like him."
Bosch said Kevin Adams, of 2335 N. Glenn Dr., planned to accompany his former wife and their granddaughter trick or treating in the neighborhood on Thursday. The couple had two grown children.
Bosch, who lives several doors up the street, said she and her husband, Nicholas, heard a commotion, voices bickering and a woman screaming. At first they thought the noise came from Paul's Nite Club at the corner of S. Broad Street and Cleveland Avenue. Then there sounded a noise of "popping, like a gun," she said.
@MaryBethLane1
Copyright 2012 The Columbus DispatchAll Rights Reserved
