An Iowa maniac who gunned down six family members before shooting himself dead previously ran a daycare practice where a baby died in his care, according to court documents.
Ryan Willis McFarland operated the Little People Daycare & Preschool alongside his wife, Lesa McFarland, one of his victims in Monday’s spree, from their Muscatine home.
Lesa McFarland had grown frustrated about the lack of childcare options in the early 2000s for her kids from a past marriage before they launched the service, according to a Quad-City Times newspaper report cited by the Daily Mail.
But McFarland, who was already a serial offender, was blamed for the death of eight-month-old baby Charles Negus, who was unresponsive after being found inside a crib with a head on his pillow, RadioIowa reported
The baby died in the hospital and McFarland, who had aspirations of becoming a teacher, was charged in 2011 with a felony of child endangerment resulting in death and neglect.
But pathologists struggled to determine if the baby died from asphyxia or sudden unexplained infant death, according to a Muscatine Journal report at the time.
McFarland pleaded guilty and the child endangerment felony was reduced to a misdemeanor as part of his plea deal, meaning he avoided a maximum sentence of 50 years imprisonment. The neglect charge was dropped.
“In the end, we chose the certain outcome of a negotiated plea over the uncertainty outcome of a jury trial,” Alan Ostergren, the Muscatine County Attorney at the time, said.
McFarland’s childcare license was revoked – and it emerged that he had never declared his past offenses on his application record.
McFarland was convicted of armed robbery in Illinois in 1994 and was sentenced to seven years in prison, WQAD reported.
In 1997, he also pled guilty to a theft charge and was slapped with an eight-year sentence.
McFarland was also convicted of fraud in 2019 after being busted for tinkering with the odometers of cars before selling them.
He tried to convey that the vehicles had a lower mileage than what they had recorded.
Investigators are still probing the motive behind McFarland’s rampage – but say the shootings “stemmed from a domestic dispute.”
He also killed Ryle McFarland, 20, Mark McFarland, 16, and Ryan McFarland Jr, 13, cops announced – and they previously described the spree as an “act of evil.”
Dakota Whitlow, 32, and Austin Harris, 29, were also killed in the rampage that saw bodies found in three locations.
Four people were found dead in McFarland’s home of more than 20 years – before he was found dead with a gunshot wound on a trail.
McFarland shouted about money outside his home just 10 minutes before the shootings, his neighbor Melissa Weggen told the Quad-City Times.
“I heard him walk by my house, saying, ‘Don’t worry about money. Everything goes away when you die.”
One man was found inside another home, and another was discovered in the Willits Metalworks business.
Whitlow’s fiancée Audrey Perdue spoke at a vigil Tuesday, telling mourners he was a talented metal worker and like the other victims has talents and potential they were unable to fulfill.
“My heart is broken as I grieve for the loss of my fiancé and the life that we had planned together,” she said.
“My heart breaks for everyone left behind to grieve these immeasurable losses.”
“It’s hard to even think that this is even real. I’m still in denial,” McFarland’s surviving son, Johnathan, told mourners.
“I just wanted to say that I will forever love and miss my mom Lesa, my sister Riley, My 4 brothers, Dakota, Austin, Mark and Ryan,” he said, breathing heavily, before turning to his dad.
“No matter what is being told to me, I will always love and miss my dad, Ryan,” Johnathan said.
“I will forever and always love and miss them dearly, and this will [not] be the last time that I ever speak to them or do anything in their honor.”
With Post wires.
