A woman's breathless call to 911. A gunshot. Then, a second person picks up the phone.
"Things aren't good. You'd better get here. My name is Lance McLellan and I just shot my wife. She was cheating on me. I caught her and it's done."
Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies later found Kathryn McLellan, 39, dead Wednesday night, but not before they'd confronted her husband, armed with a shotgun at the front door of his suburban Lake Worth home.
Ordered to drop the gun, Lance McLellan, 49, a county code enforcement officer , instead propped it under his chin and fired.
Somehow he managed only to cause flash burns to the side of his face.
He went to a nearby hospital and then to jail, where he was charged with first-degree murder.
He is set to appear in court this morning for a bond hearing.
According to a sheriff's report, investigators who reviewed tapes of Kathryn McLellan's 911 call said they heard her breathing heavily and trying to explain she was in her 9-year-old daughter's room.
The girl could be heard shouting in the background.
Then a shot was heard and the phone began randomly dialing.
Lance McLellan later took the phone and made his statement about killing his wife, Kathryn.
The dispatcher then redialed the home and the little girl answered.
She said her parents "were fighting and they have a gun. My mom is in the bedroom and I don't know where my dad is. I don't know if my mom and dad are alive."
The deputies who had gone to the McLellan home in the 6000 block of Homeland Road, west of State Road 7 near Lantana Road, had taken cover when McLellan came out.
After he fired the shot at his chin and they realized he was still alive, they approached. He said he had shot his wife and she was dead in a bedroom.
As one deputy cuffed McLellan, the second went inside and found Kathryn McLellan, shot in the head.
The deputy also reported seeing gunshot holes in the bathroom door.
Lance McLellan was taken to Wellington Regional Medical Center and later to the Violent Crimes Division of the sheriff's office.
There, he confessed to killing his wife and then asked for a lawyer.
McLellan is well enough to go to court this morning for his bond hearing, Palm Beach County Sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
McLellan's mother, Dorothy Rauch, 71, told deputies her son had called her just before the shooting, saying he had shot his wife and wanted her to take care of his daughter.
Officials of the Palm Beach County Planning Zoning and Building Department were not immediately available this morning for comment.
Click-2-Listen
Accused in court
Recent bookings
Fugitives from justice
What are these?