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Mary VanOstran Dullenty

Age : 71

Gender : Female

Race : White

Date : 10/14/2021

Location : Hilltop Street

City : Cadiz

County : Trigg

State : Kentucky

Agency : Trigg County Sheriff’s Department; Cadiz Police Department; Kentucky State Police

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Beaten/bludgeoned

Event : Bystander killed during police pursuit and residential intrusion

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

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REASON WHY PURSUIT WAS INITIATED:
On 10/14/2021, the Trigg County Sheriff’s Department received a report that a man had fired a gun at a vehicle during an altercation on South Road in Cadiz. Deputies and Cadiz Police officers attempted to make contact with him, but he drove away and police initiated a pursuit. Later court records show the pursuit resulted in charges of first-degree fleeing or evading police and speeding 26 mph or more over the limit.
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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 10/14/2021, Trigg County deputies and Cadiz Police pursued the vehicle through Cadiz following the reported shooting on South Road. The pursuit ended on Hilltop Street, where the fleeing driver stopped, left his vehicle and entered the home of 71-year-old Mary V. Dullenty. Dullenty was the fleeing driver’s aunt.
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Police remained outside while the man was inside Dullenty’s residence. A short time later, he emerged from the house and officers took him into custody. Deputies then entered the residence and found Dullenty seriously injured. She was transported to Trigg County Hospital, where she died. An autopsy performed two days later at the Kentucky Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that she died from blunt-force trauma.
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The later prosecution established that Dullenty had been strangled and beaten inside her home during the police pursuit. The criminal case ultimately included first-degree strangulation and first-degree burglary in addition to murder. What began as a police pursuit over an alleged shooting therefore ended inside the home of a 71-year-old woman who had not been involved in the original South Road encounter.
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Dullenty was a longtime Cadiz resident, a mother and grandmother whose family continued attending court proceedings for more than three years after her killing. At sentencing, her granddaughter Savana Marie Cotton described the lasting trauma of encountering the bloody aftermath inside her grandmother’s Hilltop Street home and said Dullenty’s death permanently changed the family.
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DISPOSITION:
Harold F. Jett was indicted in December 2021 on charges including murder, first-degree strangulation, first-degree burglary, first-degree fleeing or evading police and speeding 26 mph or more over the limit. The prosecution remained pending for nearly three years while his defense pursued psychiatric evaluation and questions concerning his mental condition.
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In August 2024, Jett pleaded guilty following mediation to the charges arising from Dullenty’s killing and the police pursuit. On 11/13/2024, Trigg County Circuit Judge Jamus Redd sentenced him to 35 years in prison. Dullenty’s granddaughter delivered a victim-impact statement describing the continuing effect of the killing on their family.
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No Trigg County Sheriff’s deputy or Cadiz Police officer was criminally charged for an officer’s role in initiating or continuing the pursuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Trigg County Sheriff’s Department and Cadiz Police Department did not publicly identify the officers who initiated and participated in the pursuit.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.wpkyonline.com/2021/10/19/autopsy-results-released-in-trigg-murder-case/news-edge/
https://www.wkdzradio.com/2024/11/13/jett-officially-sentenced-to-35-years-for-dullentys-murder/news-edge/
https://www.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov/news/p1-10-14-2021
https://www.wkdzradio.com/2022/05/13/jett-commonwealth-one-step-closer-to-setting-trial-date/news-edge/
https://www.wkdzradio.com/2023/10/11/psychiatric-evaluation-coming-in-dullenty-murder-case/news-edge/
https://www.wkdzradio.com/2024/08/30/jett-pleads-guilty-in-mediation-commonwealth-recommends-35-years/news-edge/