Joseph Nickell

"There are no words to describe the heartbreak in seeing four lives taken due to the actions of one man. I have worked in law enforcement for 34 years. This is one of the most disturbing acts of violence I have ever seen."

- Johnson County Sheriff Dwayne Price

Joseph Nickell was a US man from Kentucky responsible for a shooting spree in 2018 in which he killed his parents, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend's mother. He then took his own life.

The parents, Arlene and James Nickell, were shot at their rural Johnson County home on February 11, 2018. They were 70 and 75 respectively, and lived in Flatgap. Joseph's teenage son was also there but managed to flee his father and call police. He then travelled to a Paintsville apartment where he killed his girlfriend Lindsey Vanhoose, 41, and her mother, Patricia Vanhoose, 57.

Nickell then used his 9mm handgun to kill himself at the apartment. Police hunting Nickell found the bodies there after his black Toyota Camry was spotted outside. Each victim was shot one time. Police arrived after receiving a 911 call reporting the car's location.

Joseph Nickell was 45. He had been a drug addict for years. His drug use had worsened when his sister, also an addict, died several years earlier. Police said he had been found more than once to have been crushing and snorting pills, and in 2015 completed a drug rehabilitation course at a faith-based facility his mother took him to following an arrest for assault and drunkenness.

Joseph Nickell's parents had a good relationship with their son and worshiped together with him; Arlene was a Christian counselor. He spent the day of the shooting with his parents, where Arlene cooked the family a meal and baked them a cake.