Crime & Safety

Murder Victim's Mother Told Police: My Son-in-Law Killed Her and Himself

The mother of former Tri-Valley resident Amber Harris Seymore made the 9-1-1 call after finding her daughter and husband, Robert Seymore, dead in their North Carolina home.

A 9-1-1 recording from the morning Robert and Amber Seymore died reveals that Amber's mother found them dead in the upstairs of their North Carolina home when she went to tell her stepdaughter it was time to take her baby to daycare.

after Robert Seymore, a retired BART canine officer, shot his wife, Amber Seymore, in the head, killing her, police said. Seymore then shot himself. According to the 9-1-1 recording, the two were found in a bedroom by Amber's mother, who had gone upstairs to tell her that it was time to "take the baby to nursery school."

On the tape, Amber's mother tells the dispatcher that her "son-in-law killed them."

The mother says:

"My son-in-law killed both of them. I'm at home by myself with the kids. He's a cop. He killed her. Can we get some help? Oh my god. Oh my god."

Amber's mother also told the dispatcher that the couple were getting a divorce and that Robert was a BART cop.

Two weeks earlier Amber Seymore had made a 9-1-1 call to ask police to come to her house the day after Thanksgiving because she was going to ask her husband to move out. According to an 9-1-1 call, Amber Seymore told police she had found out her husband was cheating on her and she didn't know what he might do when she told him to leave.

"My husband is an ex-cop. My husband has a gun on him and a bad temper."

Amber told the dispatcher her brother, who was also a police officer, said she should call police to the house as a precaution. On the recording (click here to listen, Amber tells the dispatcher he was on his way home and that she planned on "kicking him out" of the house when he arrived. She tells the dispatcher she "took all of the other guns out of the house and hid them."

"We have a lot of guns," she said.

Amber told the dispatcher that the last time she confronted Seymore about an issue a few months prior, he shoved her while she was holding the kids. Amber asked if the police officer responding could stay out by the street, "In case something happens."

Amber was concerned about the children being in the home and said her husband had two of the three children with him. The couple's children are under age 9.

According to authorities in Holly Springs, North Carolina, the Medical Examiner's Office determined Seymore shot Amber then himself.

Amber Seymore, known to many in the Bay Area as Amber Harris, went to school in Danville. She worked in Pleasanton, and the family lived in Livermore where they attended church at Cornerstone Church.

Amber's friends and acquaintances are mourning her loss online. Read more about what they are saying about Amber Lynette Harris Seymore online.

Two years ago, on Dec. 10, 2010 in San Diego, two Amador Valley High School graduates who were a couple died in a murder-suicide. Authorities in San Diego determined that  then killed himself.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic violence, Tri-Valley Haven offers support and counseling.

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