On January 28, 2025, retired Georgia lawyers Darla and Michael McKenzie were shot while visiting their daughter and son-in-law at a home on Coats Bend Circle in rural Gadsden, Alabama. Etowah County deputies arrived around 12:30 p.m. and found both victims with gunshot wounds; Michael, 72, was pronounced dead at the scene. Darla, 68, was airlifted to a Birmingham hospital in critical condition and later died; an investigator testified she had been shot 13 times.

Authorities arrested 38-year-old son-in-law Christopher Scott Johnson within hours of the shooting after 911 calls and scene evidence pointed to him. He was charged with capital murder and is being held in the Etowah County Detention Center without bond; a judge ordered him to remain jailed pending referral to a grand jury. Friends remembered the McKenzies as a devoted couple who loved to travel and raised three children.

If anyone knew the McKenzies, their family, or has information about that afternoon, please share what you know with investigators.