A couple who once lived in the Bee Cave area were killed Wednesday after they confronted the woman’s ex-husband — who previously lived in Bastrop — and his wife in a dramatic Ohio shootout that a friend said was over their children’s college fund.
Three of the four people were armed and fired shots outside the ex-husband’s house near Dayton in southwestern Ohio, the Greene County sheriff’s office told the Dayton Daily News.
Cheryl Sanders, a stuntwoman who has appeared in films including “Ocean’s Eleven,” and her husband, Robert Reed Sanders, were killed.
The ex-husband, Lindsey Duncan, who has not been charged in the shooting, survived the exchange of gunfire along with his wife.
Duncan is a Texas native turned California “celebrity nutritionist,” whose companies sold more than $50 million worth of green coffee bean extract after Duncan appeared on the “Dr. Oz” show. Duncan and his company later agreed to pay $9 million to settle claims of deceptive advertising that framed green coffee extract as a weight-loss miracle.
Duncan and his wife spoke Friday at a news conference his attorney arranged after the Ohio shootout. He said a man with a camouflage mask and hoodie ran up to their vehicle and held a gun to his wife’s head while the two of them were pulling into their driveway.
“All of a sudden, hell began. … I thought it was a bad nightmare,” Duncan said. “I didn’t know what to do. Whatever happened after that was instinct.”
The masked man was Robert Sanders, the current husband of Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, said Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer. Duncan, who also had a gun, fired at Robert Sanders, killing him, the sheriff said.
Cheryl Sanders arrived at the home in her vehicle soon after the shooting began, Fischer told the Daily News. She and Duncan traded gunfire, and Cheryl Sanders was shot and killed, Fischer said.
During the two separate gunbattles, bullets were flying inches past Duncan’s wife’s head, Duncan said.
“Her being alive today … I’ll never be able to explain that,” Duncan said. “It wasn’t one shot or two shots. It seemed like 100 shots, and there were shells everywhere.”
Five years ago, Duncan reported to the Greene County sheriff’s office that he believed Cheryl Sanders was trying to hire someone to kill him, Fischer said.
Fischer said his office is still investigating whether the shooting was a planned ambush.
Robert Sanders had been licensed in real estate in Texas, Fischer said Thursday.
According to her online biography, Cheryl Sanders said her career as a stuntwoman in the 1980s and 1990s included being a double for Brooke Shields, Sharon Stone, Rene Russo, Kathleen Turner and other A-list actresses. She did stunt double work for Jessica Alba in 2016.
She broke the bones in her face, right arm and hand in a flying stunt while filming “Back to the Future Part II” in 1989, according to The Denver Post.
Court records show that Duncan and Cheryl Sanders signed a prenuptial agreement in 1999, got married and were then divorced in 2009, the Dayton Daily News reported.
Since the divorce, the records indicate their relationship remained sour. According to a court filing in 2016, Duncan sued Cheryl and Robert Sanders for defamation, slander, libel and other accusations.
On Friday, Adrian King, a friend and former business partner of Robert Sanders, told the Dayton Daily News the Sanderses had come to Ohio to confront the woman’s ex-husband about access to their children’s college fund.
“Supposedly, both Cheryl and Lindsey had to sign off on any money that was taken out of the fund for the girls,” said King, 81, of North Carolina. “But part of the trust was that Lindsey could withhold funds if the girls didn’t go to a school that he approved of, and that’s what they were fighting over.”
King said he is a lay minister who performed Robert and Cheryl’s wedding ceremony and called himself Robert Sanders’ closest confidant.
King said law enforcement officials in North Carolina sealed the home of Reed and Cheryl Sanders on Friday morning pursuant to a search warrant.
Credit: Source link
