Mother of 5 Shot to Death as She Left Her Sunday Church Service

CHICAGO, IL — She died on a beautiful, sunny day after leaving Sunday church services.

Trinyce Sanders-Wilson was a mother of five and a "god-fearing woman" who sometimes helped cook meals for people at her church, Second Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist on Chicago's West Side in the Austin community.

Sunday was "Family and Friends Day" at the church, with morning Sunday School for the children. Sanders-Wilson sang in the church choir, and she worked with children at the church.

She was walking to her car after a morning of prayer and rejoicing in the word of God when her estranged husband shot her three times, then turned the gun on himself and fired a bullet into his mouth. They died together on 57th Street and West Chicago Avenue.

Police and paramedics came, and they covered the 38-year-old woman's body. Her feet poked out from beneath the sheet as parishioners gathered behind yellow crime-scene tape, held each other and cried.

Her sister, Phenesha Odom, spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday.

"Trinyce was a beautiful person — a mother, a daughter, a sister, a cousin, a confidante, a friend to many people. Trinyce, she had a lot of family and friends who loved her. Trinyce was very talented. ...

"Trinyce will be greatly missed.”

A beautician by trade, she shared her life with Roshaun D. Wilson, making a home together in west suburban Broadview. Their respective families were members of the church for decades, according to their pastor. But something went awry in their marriage, and they were recently estranged.

For reasons not yet revealed, the 40-year-old Wilson brought a gun to the church on Sunday, found his wife as she left the building around 2 p.m., and shot her.

Witnesses said she fell after the first shot, then her husband stood over her and fired two more shots before turning the gun on himself.

“Obviously, he had some issues in his marriage as a husband. He was a hard-working man," his uncle, Donald Wilson, told the Chicago Tribune. I’ve never seen violence from him at all. Especially at this magnitude. He loves his family.”

Their pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Giles, spoke to reporters on Sunday.

"I know you always hear this about people when they are deceased, about how wonderful they were. But genuinely, she was a wonderful woman," Giles said. "It's a tragedy on both sides for the church. He was also a good guy.

"But you never know what's going on in the minds of people."