‘Everybody’s feeling it,’ says friend of woman who died in apparent murder-suicide

BELLEVUE — A small Idaho community is struggling to grasp at the reality of possible murder-suicide last week.

On Thursday night, Idaho State Police found the bodies of Ashley Midby, 34, and Jared Murphy, 28, inside an office connected to a Bellevue coffee shop. Police say both appear to have died from gunshot wounds, and the only other information being released is investigators are considering it a murder-suicide.

“She really had a way to make people feel like they are No. 1,” family friend Jenni Franklin said. “It’s tragic. How does this happen? Everybody’s feeling it.”

Both Murphy and Midby were known to each other, investigators said.

ISP says at the time of his death, Murphy worked as a police officer with the city of Hailey. He was also campaigning to be mayor of Bellevue.

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Bellevue is a community of about 2,200 people in the Wood River Valley. Midby, who helped her mother manage the Coffee Corner Cafe, seemed to know everyone in the small, tight-knit community, Franklin said.

“This world lost a beautiful ray of sunshine,” Midby’s mother, Karen Tackett, said on Facebook. “May her bright smile, her cheerful spirit, her tender loving heart live on. There is absolutely no greater pain than losing your child. No words can be found to fully express this pain our family is feeling.”

Franklin established a GoFundMePage in honor of Midby and as of Tuesday morning, the page had raised over $5,000. Franklin said the money will help support the employees of the coffee shop that Midby loved and cared about.

“We are all so incredibly grateful for all the love and support we have received from friends and family and our community,” Tackett said. “We love you all so much.”

The family is planning to have a vigil for the community of Bellevue on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the corner of Main Street and Cedar Street.