Pastor: Murdered twin sisters left the 'land of dying' together and are with Christ

MCKINNEY, Texas (Christian Examiner) – It is the type of horrible crime that just doesn't happen in McKinney, Texas – a domestic dispute turned homicide, but not just any homicide.

When the incident was over, twin sisters Karen Bigham and Kathy Boobar lay dead at the hands of Bigham's estranged husband, who made good on a threat from week before. Both were shot to death in the Bigham home, and friends say Kathy likely died trying to protect her sister.

Police quickly arrested Kelley Bigham, 50, for the crime. He is a man reportedly plagued by alcohol abuse and bipolar disorder. He now sits in jail, charged with two counts of capital murder and his bond set at $1.5 million.

Kathy knew that the relationship between her sister and her husband was bad. The two were in the process of getting a divorce. She had gone to her sister's house to be supportive of her twin, Kathy's husband Tom told Dallas FOX affiliate KDFW. In fact, Kathy had said she suspected something might happen.

"[Kathy] told me yesterday that her sister needed her and she was going up there to be supportive of her, so she headed up there after work," Tom Boobar said. It was the last time he saw his wife.

What happened in the McKinnery home sounds like a scene from a Hollywood movie. An angry husband arrives. He tells his daughter and grandson to leave and then he walks into the room where one sister is doing the other sister's hair. He kills his wife and her twin sister. Police laid out the chilling scenario in their arrest warrant.

Police also said Bigham's daughter heard a gunshot, a scream, and then another shot as she was running out the back door with her son. She received a text message 16 minutes later from her father: "I'm sorry."

Kathy and Tim Boobar had recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. When he spoke with another local news station, Tim chose not to focus on the pain he and his daughter Carly are experiencing. He chose the fonder memories of his wife. He thought about their first date.

"Got up the nerve to ask her out, and we still talked about that first date," Boobar told News Fix.

Sam Dennis, the Boobar's pastor at Parkway Hills Church, described how he found about the incident on his blog. He got a call at church, but couldn't answer it because he was busy on another line. Then another call came. And another. And another. Finally, he answered the phone.

"My heart raced to high gear," Dennis wrote. "Kathy, Tim and daughter Carly have been members of Parkway Hills for years, and had just been part of our trip to Israel this past Christmas. One of our finest and more faithful families. I braced myself for what might come and called Tim's cell phone. Sitting in my truck, Carly, Tim's daughter, answered the phone sobbing. I asked, 'Carly, where are you?' 'In McKinney,' she said. 'Is your mom OK?' She sobbed deeply, then cried the words I dreaded, 'Pastor, she's gone. Mom has been killed.' I groaned. Holding back my own shock and pain. 'Where are you?' I asked. And as she was giving me the address I turned my truck north toward McKinney, Texas, and my next hours, which were to be as horrific as any I'd ever known."

Dennis wrote of the entire family's faithfulness to their church and their deep faith in Christ. He also wrote about how much Kathy loved her sister.

"They loved each other deeply. Coming into this world together, they left the land of dying and entered the land of living together, as well," Dennis wrote.

"For a while – a long while – we will all reflect on the horrific nature of how their lives ended. But eventually, even for the family, thoughts will turn otherwise. They will be remembered for who they were, what they gave, how they loved and how they lived. And for we who are in Christ, we will cling to the truth – the gospel – which becomes ever more real. In an instant, Jesus received them to himself."

Tim Boobar said he and his family might not understand why what happened took place, but he said they are comforted knowing that the twin sisters were together when they born and when they died.

"We're going to celebrate their lives together," he said.