Community honors woman killed in murder-suicide

BETHEL — Flowers have started piling up on a table outside the salon where Traci-Marie Jones, a local hair stylist killed in a murder-suicide earlier this week, worked for nearly three years.

Community members and loved ones are reeling from the death of the 52-year-old mother of three, who was killed by her estranged husband Tuesday night at her Reservoir Street home. In addition to the flowers and mementos being left outside of Brittany Shears salon on Greenwood Avenue, a GoFundMe page and meal train have been set up to support her family.

Jones, who also worked at Bethel Health Care & The Cascades Assisted Living, was a much loved hair stylist and “the heart” of the Brittany Shears family, according to a Thursday post on the salon’s Facebook page.

“We all love Traci very very much,” the post states. “She truly did light up every room she walked into.”

More than $10,000 was raised within 17 hours for Jones’ family through a GoFundMe started by a Wilton woman named Melissa Guner.

“No one was prepared for her to be taken from us, and we are all still in shock and grieving,” Guner wrote on the GoFundMe page, noting that Jones “touched the lives of so many, and was known to light up the room with her laugh and her smile.”

Although Jones’ family “made it clear that they are not asking for money,” Guner said they gave her “their blessing” to pursue the fundraising effort on their behalf, “knowing how much people love Traci and want to contribute.”

The link to the GoFundMe page is https://gofund.me/https://gofund.me/a09cdc64.

Bethel resident Heather Moran started a Meal Train page for people to sign up to provide meals to the family. As of 11 a.m. Friday, nine people and families had volunteered.

“We appreciate all the help that has been extended to us,” one of Jones’ family members wrote on the Meal Train page. “Please do not feel obligated, but if you feel like helping in any way we are very thankful and feel very blessed.”

Anyone interested in volunteering to provide meals can do so at mealtrain.com/trains/5ve92y.

A Brittany Shears employee told Hearst Connecticut Media that a few close friends and family members gathered at the salon Wednesday for a small, private vigil following the news of Jones’ death. The salon’s Facebook page states that there are no updates on services and that “nothing public is planned at this time.”

While the salon asked the public to give her family “the time and space they need and deserve to grieve, process and navigate all of this,” Jones’ Brittany Shears colleagues invite people to continue leaving flowers and mementos in her honor outside the salon at 233 Greenwood Ave.

Describing her as “the sunshine of everybody’s day,” friends say Jones was failed by the system. She had sought a restraining order against her estranged husband, 58-year-old Lester Jones, just two weeks before he killed her.

Bethel Police Capt. Heather Burnes said officers responded to the residence around 11:50 p.m. after getting a report of hearing possible gunshots and yelling in the road. Inside the home, police found a man and woman suffering from gunshot wounds in an upstairs bedroom.

Police rendered aid to both of them, but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene and the man died later at Danbury Hospital. Police have not identified the individuals, but the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Traci-Marie Jones was the victim of a homicide, while Lester Jones died by suicide.

Jones