Drunk Man Massacres Ex-Wife and Her Friends After Heavy Drinking At a Bar. They Tried to Charge the Bartender?
[Plano, Texas]
Meredith Lane met Spencer Hight while studying at the University of Texas at Dallas. They married in 2011 and purchased their first house in 2015. However, after living together for two years, they began arguing a lot due to Spencer’s job and alcohol problems. According to Meredith’s mother, he was also physically abusive on two separate occasions. The two realized that their personalities were clashing too much to maintain a relationship.
After Meredith tried to hold onto the marriage for a couple years and help him through his drinking, he ultimately decided to leave the home in March of 2017 to stay with his good friend, James Dunlop. By July, Meredith officially filed for divorce and was making moves to regain her independence. On the other hand, Spencer was spending his days sulking in his sorrows over the split. He exhibited major anger about the divorce and often publicized his feelings toward his ex-wife on his social media. One of his posts talked about body-slamming Meredith while one ranted calling her “souless.”
On September 10th, 2017, an already-intoxicated Spencer walked into the Local Pubhouse and sat across the bartender, Lyndsey Glass. He continuously ordered drinks back to back — like many other patrons. Once the alcohol began to kick in more, his behavior took an odd turn. Surveillance cameras showed Spencer spinning a large knife that he brought from home on the bar and briefly taking his gun out from his waistband. According to the bartender, he was talking about how he needed to put someone in their place and had “dirty work” to do.
The conversations Spencer was having with the bartender concerned her so much that she texted her manager, Timothy Banks, to explain the situation. She texted Banks that Spencer was “psycho”, “drunk”, and “being weird.”
Further into the night, Banks made Spencer put the knife and gun in his car because he was scaring other patrons. At 7:37pm, Spencer left the bar with Glass and Banks following behind him in fear that he would hurt someone. As Spencer arrived at Meredith’s home, so did Glass and Banks. Inside, Meredith was enjoying the night with seven of her friends because the Dallas Cowboys were playing in a football game. The evening get together included Meredith, Anthony Cross (33), Olivia Deffner (24), James Dunlop (29), Daryl Hawkins (22), Rion Morgan (31), Myah Bass (28), and Caleb Edwards (25).
At 8:03pm, Glass called 911 to report that something terrible was going to unfold and someone had a firearm. However, they drove away before any actual danger unfolded. Meanwhile, the friends socialized inside while sharing snacks, drinks, and watching the game.
Suddenly, a belligerently drunk Spencer met Meredith in the backyard while holding a rifle. According to a neighbor, Meredith cried “do you really have to do this?” Within seconds, shots rang out and Meredith’s body dropped in the yard.
Spencer walked into the home and sprayed bullets across the room striking all 7 victims. When police arrived and heard continuous gunfire, they made their way into the home and saw multiple victims not moving on the floor. Authorities exchanged bullets with Spencer and successfully killed him.
It was later discovered that Spencer was heavily armed with a pistol, a semi-automatic rifle and a knife. This finding suggested that Spencer had calculated a plan and was determined to follow through with it. Back at Spencer’s apartment, investigators found another rifle, more ammunition and gun accessories, only confirming more about the evil they were dealing with to investigators.
The 8 victims were all pronounced dead on the scene.
During further investigation, police found out that two of the victims were actually good friends of Spencer. James Dunlop was the friend that took Spencer into his home when he left the relationship with Meredith. He also participated in Spencer’s wedding by being his best man. Another victim, Rion Morgan, was one of Spencer’s groomsmen in his wedding. A combination of alcohol, jealousy, and ego caused him to not only brutally end the life of people he called friends, but also innocent individuals that either rarely or never interacted with him.
19 months after the mass murder, police arrested and charged, Lyndsey Glass, the bartender, with a misdemeanor charge for selling alcohol to certain persons. This law forbids bartenders from selling an alcoholic beverage to a habitual drunk or an intoxicated, or insane person. Her attorney argued that much of Spencer’s odd behavior was done without Lyndsey around, in addition to the fact that when she did witness his demeanor, she notified the manager and even followed him to his home. With this defense in mind, an official indictment of these charges was refused.
