Mother Of Six K!LLED While Helping Friend Escape Abusive Relationship | HO’

It was still dark in the early hours of a late-April Sunday when 30-year-old Britney Booker stepped outside her modest home in Racine, Wisconsin.

Inside, six children slept — the youngest barely two years old. Moments later, according to investigators, Britney was forced into her own car by a man she had every reason to fear.

By mid-morning, police would find the devoted mother dead inside that vehicle. What began months earlier as an act of loyalty and compassion — helping a close friend leave an abusive relationship — had ended in a tragedy that shocked an entire community.

This is the heartbreaking story of how a young mother doing what so many of us hope we would do for a friend ended up targeted, hunted, and killed — and how repeated warning signs, missed enforcement opportunities, and escalating violence culminated in the worst possible outcome.

A Mother Known For Showing Up

Friends and relatives describe Britney as the person you called when life turned upside down. She was a steady presence, a woman who balanced her days around parenting responsibilities — school runs, meals, appointments, laundry, bedtime routines — while still finding time to help anyone who needed her.

There was nothing glamorous or dramatic about her life. She wasn’t the center of attention, but she was the center of her children’s world.

They say she ended nearly every conversation with three words: “I love you.” To her family, that wasn’t a cliché — it was ritual, a promise, a reminder. Which is why those words now echo with unbearable weight.

Britney’s family insists she didn’t live recklessly and had no criminal background. Her only connection to the man who would become her killer was through loyalty — loyalty to a friend trying to break free from years of abuse.

A Friend In Crisis — And A Violent Man

That friend had been in a long-term relationship with 42-year-old Terry L. Jackson Jr., a man who, police say, already carried a history of violence and repeated contact with law enforcement.

As the relationship deteriorated, friends and family witnessed the classic cycle familiar to domestic-violence workers: charm, control, tension, explosion, apology — and then a reset before the next explosion.

When the friend finally tried to leave for good, she didn’t do so alone. Britney — practical, reliable, not easily intimidated — went with her to retrieve belongings. She was there to keep things calm, to make sure her friend wasn’t cornered, to get in and out safely.

But safety evaporated instantly.

According to investigators, Terry Jackson ambushed the women during one of these attempts — attacking them with a hammer. Both sustained serious injuries. Britney was lucky to survive. Doctors treated heavy head trauma as police documented the attack and filed serious charges. Suddenly this wasn’t just a volatile breakup — it was a matter of life and death.

Warnings Ignored — And A Man On The Run

Despite the brutal hammer assault, Jackson remained free. Warrants were issued when he failed to appear in court — but he wasn’t immediately located. That failure would prove devastating.

As weeks passed, Britney and her friend felt the pressure tightening. Investigators say Jackson didn’t fade away — instead, his behavior escalated. He skipped court dates. He crossed state lines. He allegedly relied on acquaintances to hide him. Police labeled him armed and dangerous.

For Britney’s family, every knock, every message, every unknown car outside the house became a potential threat. Loved ones say the fear was real — but they believed the system would step in before things went any further.

They were wrong.

“He Was Watching Her”

Police later developed strong evidence showing that Jackson deliberately monitored Britney’s movements — allegedly returning to her neighborhood repeatedly in the days leading up to the murder.

In the predawn darkness of April 24, 2022, investigators say Jackson appeared outside Britney’s home once again. Surveillance cameras captured the chilling moment: a man approaching the house; then Britney and the suspect leaving together. The footage, authorities say, showed not companionship — but compliance and control.

Inside the home, six young children remained asleep. Britney did not bring personal belongings. There was no sign she intended to leave voluntarily.

What happened next unfolded quickly and violently inside her car. Forensic investigators later determined that she was assaulted and then shot in the head. Her body was discovered still inside the vehicle, parked in a residential neighborhood not far away. She never made it home.

The Manhunt

With the community reeling, police issued a blunt warning: Terry Jackson was the primary suspect — and he was still out there.

Within hours, a multi-state manhunt was underway. Federal marshals joined the search. Rewards were announced. Cameras across Wisconsin and neighboring states were scoured for clues. Every reported sighting triggered a fresh wave of anxiety.

As investigators closed in, three women were later charged with allegedly helping Jackson hide — a sobering reminder that abusers rarely act in isolation. Eventually, after months on the run, Jackson was arrested in Chicago following a brief standoff and extradited back to Wisconsin to face more than 20 charges, including first-degree intentional homicide and kidnapping — charges that could put him behind bars for life.

Six Children Left Without Their Mother

No headline captures the true devastation of this crime — not like the sight of six children sitting in a living room with nowhere to run from the reality that their mother is never coming home.

Britney’s father, Leonard Larry, is now raising them alongside extended family. He describes waking up to the message he’d waited months to receive — that the suspect had finally been captured — as “the best feeling in the world.” But he is also painfully aware that justice doesn’t erase grief.

He vows to attend every hearing, every motion, every parole review — anything tied to the man accused of killing his daughter. “You is not walking on nothing,” he says firmly.

Could This Have Been Prevented?

It’s a question that weighs heavily not only on Britney’s family — but on the wider community: Could this tragedy have been stopped?

Domestic-violence experts say separation is the single most dangerous phase in an abusive relationship. When a survivor attempts to leave — or when a third party helps — the abuser’s perceived loss of control can trigger lethal retaliation. In Britney’s case, those dynamics were layered on top of a documented violent assault, active warrants, bail violations, stalking-type behavior, and reports of ongoing threats.

Yet despite all of this, the suspect was still free.

Advocates now point to systemic weaknesses: inadequate risk assessment, delays in warrant execution, limited cross-jurisdiction communication, and not enough immediate protective support for victims and those who assist them. Britney’s death is now held up as a blunt lesson in the cost of those failures.

A Community In Mourning — And Demanding Change

In Racine, balloons and memorials appeared quickly outside the home where Britney once lived. Mother’s Day that year felt hollow — a reminder of the irreplaceable person who should have been there.

Meanwhile, her father decided on a different kind of tribute. He now organizes community cookouts — the kind of family-centered gatherings his daughter loved — not only to honor her memory, but to build connection, awareness, and support networks so others don’t suffer alone.

The family also continues to fight for accountability — not only in court, but across the institutions they feel failed her.

Because Britney didn’t die while seeking revenge. She didn’t die chasing danger. She died because she stood beside a friend when that friend needed her most. And for that, a violent man allegedly decided she had to be punished.

The Legal Battle Ahead

Terry Jackson now sits in custody awaiting trial on a long list of charges tied to both the February hammer attack and the April homicide. Among them: first-degree intentional homicide, kidnapping, felony bail jumping, aggravated battery, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Prosecutors insist they will prove a clear pattern of escalating domestic-violence behavior leading up to the killing — not a sudden outburst, but a deliberate act carried out after months of threats, evasion, and stalking.

Defense attorneys, meanwhile, continue to file motions and review forensic evidence. Court proceedings have stretched on — a frustrating reality for a grieving family seeking closure. If convicted, Jackson faces life imprisonment.

The Children Left Behind

Beyond headlines and hearings, six young lives remain forever altered. They must process not only the absence of their mother — but the knowledge that she died violently, and that the man accused of killing her once walked free despite clear warning signs.

Family members are determined to provide stability, therapy, education, normalcy — but nothing can replace the simple everyday moments that once filled their home:

The ride to school.

The bedtime story.

The kiss on the forehead.

The constant “I love you.”

Those are the real pieces missing from their world.

A Tragedy That Should Force Us To Look Closer

Britney Booker’s death wasn’t random. It wasn’t unpredictable. And it wasn’t unpreventable.

It followed a pattern advocates have begged the public — and lawmakers — to recognize: abusers escalate when control is threatened; third parties become targets; court failures widen the danger window; and “he’ll calm down” often precedes catastrophe.

What Britney did — standing beside a friend escaping abuse — was brave, compassionate, human. And it cost her everything.

Her story now stands as a painful reminder that when the system falls short, the consequences are not abstract — they are children without mothers, families without daughters, and communities haunted by the question: What if someone had acted sooner?

Remembering Britney

In the end, relatives hope the world remembers Britney not for the violence that ended her life — but for the love that defined it.

A woman who never left her friends to face danger alone.
A mother who tucked six children into bed at night.
A daughter whose father now keeps her memory alive through shared meals and laughter in the park.

And a human being whose final act was rooted in compassion — the same trait that made her irreplaceable.

Her family’s plea now is simple: learn from this. Believe survivors. Protect those who step in to help. Close the gaps that let violent offenders disappear into the shadows. Because no one should ever die for choosing kindness.

And six children should never again have to grow up learning the hardest way of all that sometimes love isn’t enough to keep you safe.