The 32-year-old daughter of former Kentucky state representative C Wesley Morgan was killed on Tuesday morning in what police are describing as an early morning home invasion shooting.
Mr Morgan and his wife were also injured as a result of being “shot up,” he told the Herald Leader of the home invasion, which took place at his large hilltop estate outside of Richmond, Kentucky.
The Republican businessman, who left office in 2018 after one term, confirmed the death of his daughter, Jordan Morgan, but declined to provide further information about what happened, citing an ongoing investigation from Kentucky state police.
State police, as well as the Madison County coroner Jimmy Cornelison, are on the scene at the house to investigate.
State Trooper Robert Purdy added in the Leader that police are still in the “very early stages, preliminary stages of the investigation.”
Police have not yet announced any suspects or potential motives for the violent encounter.
Those with relevant information to the investigation are encouraged to call state police at 859-623-2404.
The house where the alleged break-in took place has its own interesting history.
The 14,300-square-foot mansion was listed on sale last year for $6.5m. Inside, prospective buyers would find all the usual bells and whistles – chandeliers, Grecian columns, an atrium – as well as the “ultimate fallout shelter” buried underneath the house.
“It was built by someone who wanted the ultimate fallout shelter. He wanted it to be very secure, and he wanted it to have things that none of the other ones had,” listing agent Marilyn Hoffman of Hoffman International Properties told Realtor.com in November. “It’s a nuclear, biological, and chemical fallout shelter.”
The 2,000-square-foot saferoom is 26 feet underground, with 39-inch solid concrete ceilings and 15-inch walls, as well as a Swiss air filtration system.
In 2017, while in office, Mr Morgan, who owns a number of Kentucky liquor stores, was charged with illegally transporting alcohol across county lines, which was illegal at the time without a transporter’s license.
Later that year, a judge dropped the charges, after a change in state law.
Mr Morgan would later go on to unsuccessfully challenge US Senator Mitch McConnell in the state’s Republican primary in 2020.
His daughter Jordan followed her father into politics by working on Republican Matt Bevin’s successful gubernatorial campaign in Kentucky in 2015. She served on his communications team until 2017, when she left politics to work as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Boone County, according to the Leader.
At the time of her death, Jordan was employed by the Reminger law firm in Lexington.
