Relative of victim in 19-year-old Rigby murder shares memories of what happened
July 24, 2023
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20:20Now PlayingRelative of victim in 19-year-old Rigby murder shares memories of what happened
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RIGBY - Gregg Whitmore and his girlfriend, Karen Cummings, were asleep at home. It was Feb. 1, 2004 and around 1:15 a.m., Whitmore’s ex-wife, Shana Parkinson, entered the Rigby home on 2nd South and stabbed them both to death.
“She went in and stabbed (Whitmore) several times,” former Rigby Police Chief Larry Anderson explains.
After stabbing Cummings, Parkinson left. Authorities later found Parkinson at a Rexburg gas station covered in blood.
(She initially told deputies) she didn’t know how (the blood) got there. A deputy questioned her and we arrested her,” says Anderson.
Her trial took place three months later and lasted several weeks. Ultimately, Parkinson’s sentence was 27 years to life in prison. She remains in the Idaho State Correctional Institution to this day. She’s up for parole in eight years.
Parkinson’s motive for the murder, according to Anderson, is that she was mad at Whitmore. It had been a bitter divorce and she was upset that Whitmore left her.
Whitmore’s younger sister, Connie Allen, introduced Parkinson and Whitmore to each other. She provides additional details about their relationship that led up to the murder.
“Gregg was a victim of domestic violence. He had been abused extremely bad by Shana. That is why he finally got away from her,” Allen says. “She had some mental illnesses (tied to) alcohol abuse and prescription drugs.”
Allen says Parkinson stalked Whitmore following their separation and divorce. It got progressively worse over time. Allen reports Parkinson was calling her brother 400 times a day at one point. She cites instances where Parkinson slashed Whitmore’s tires, bashed in his car and “terrorized his house” by starting a bonfire in the backyard and burning his personal things.
Parkinson was nothing like this at the time, Allen says, and she was surprised when all of this came out.
Whitmore and current Police Chief Allen Fullmer grew up together and were best friends. He was trying to get back in law enforcement at the time, but he failed the written test. In retrospect, he feels God had a hand in that.
“That was God protecting me because I would’ve been working that night and I couldn’t have handled that,” Fullmer says.
Despite Whitmore’s tragic death and the longterm effect it’s had on his family, Allen is grateful to the efforts of law enforcement in her brother’s case and she speaks highly of Anderson all these years later.
“Larry Anderson is the most amazing person in the world. I have the most respect for that man,” she says.
Allen shares her memories of the case in the video above.
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