On Christmas Day 2023, a violent domestic dispute in Grain Valley, Missouri, ended with the death of 44-year-old Christopher Eason. Officers were dispatched shortly after 7:00 p.m. to a home in the 700 block of Southwest Woodland Circle; they found Eason lying face down in the dining room, deceased from multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators say the confrontation involved Eason and his 23-year-old son, Franklin Ray Eason, who was at the scene and taken into custody. Witnesses reported the argument escalated after the father became upset about the son’s friend moving out. Probable cause statements allege the father first retrieved and waved a handgun, then set it on a table; Franklin then picked up that weapon and fired multiple rounds. When that gun jammed, he reportedly fetched a second gun and fired another shot, later telling detectives he shot to stop his father from suffering.

Franklin Eason was arrested on-site, allegedly admitted the shooting, and was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action; bond was set at $100,000. The case is proceeding through the Jackson County court system.