News and Investigations

The Polk County Sheriff's Office is investigating a murder-suicide that occurred three days before Christmas. Preliminary information is as follows:

Just before 11:00 p.m. on Monday, December 22, 2025, the PCSO ECC received a 911 call from Lemon Avenue in the Highland City area of Lakeland, during which a woman reported that a 12-year-old neighbor ran to her house and asked her to call 911 due to his stepfather and mother fighting. The child reported hearing a single gunshot as he ran from his home. He ran to the neighbor for help because his mother told him to "call 911" as an argument was escalating between the adults.

According to the investigation so far, detectives determined that 47-year-old Jason Kenney had been inside his shed when he decided to go inside and watch the end of an NFL football game on the television in the living room, where his wife was. His wife told him that she did not want to watch football and an argument ensued. The victim then yelled to her son to call 911 and he ran from the house, hearing a single gunshot behind him.

When deputies arrived a few minutes later, they located the victim deceased in the living room with a gunshot wound to her head. They also located a 13-year-old girl, the victim's daughter, in her bedroom with two gunshot wounds. She was transported to a local hospital, where she is in critical but stable condition. They also found the couple's one-year-old baby girl asleep in her crib, unharmed.

After shooting his wife, Jason Kenney fled from the area in his truck, and called his sister who is not currently in Florida. He told her that he had done something really bad and that he was not going to jail. He told her that she would "see it on the news." He drove to his deceased father's home on 10th Street South in the city of Lake Wales and went into a shed on that property. When deputies arrived and yelled for him to come outside, they heard a single gunshot. They made entry into the shed and found Jason deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. 

"Three days before Christmas, this man shot and killed his wife, shot his stepdaughter, and then shot and killed himself. This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific. We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time." - Grady Judd, Sheriff