KANSAS CITY, Kan. — “She was a free spirit, loved life, loved people,” a grieving Barb Lamping said about her 24-year-old daughter, Tabitha Newbill.
“She was always so happy. She and I would be the cooks at Thanksgiving. We would always cook together. She was very close to our family, and yes, she especially loved her kids,” Barb told FOX 4’s Robert Townsend during a tough interview Monday.
Tabitha’s two kids, 18-month-old Isaiah and 6-year-old Christopher, are now left without their mom.
“Isaiah, he’s so little he doesn’t really know. He just knows she’s not here and you can tell he misses he and wants her, but he’s just not talking. Christopher, he’ll ask and the’ll he’ll quiet down. He’d asked my son the other day if somebody could bring his mommy back,” the weeping mom said.
Police say on April 22 officers went to the KCK home near 9th and Troup where relatives say Tabitha occasionally lived with her husband, Christopher Newbill, and discovered the young mom shot to death.
During the early morning hours the next day, Kansas City police say they first found Christopher Newbill’s abandoned car near Interstate 435 and Shoal Creek. Investigators say officers then found Chis Newbill dead in some nearby woods of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“I don’t think it’s really hit me yet because it’s just so much to have to do, you know? I never ever expected this. She was only 24 and she had her whole life ahead of her. She should be here with her boys. No parent should ever have to bury their child,” said Barb Lamping.
Relatives say Tabitha worked as a certified nursing assistant and was preparing to go back to school to become a registered nurse.
“She was just always so busy working, going to church and taking care of her children. I will now care for my grandsons. It won’t be easy, but we’re all talking about what we must do. I’ve talked to people at her church and I will do everything I can to keep them at her church. I know that’s what Tabby would’ve wanted. Minute by minute, one day at a time, that’s all we can do.”
On Tuesday family and friends will attend Tabitha’s funeral at Praise Chapel Church in Kansas City, Kansas. A GoFundMe page is also set up to assist her family in paying for her funeral expenses.
