Burglary suspect is wanted for shooting dead ex-Kentucky lawmaker’s daughter as she lay asleep in bed during 4am home invasion at family’s sprawling mansion

Kentucky State Police have named Shannon Vince Gilday, 23, of Taylor Mill, as the suspected burglar who shot and killed a lawyer sleeping in her bed

Police announced on Thursday they believe Gilday forced his way into former state GOP Rep. C. Wesley Morgan’s mansion, armed with a rifle, at around 4am Tuesday

He is accused of shooting an killing Jordan, Wesley Morgan’s 32-year-old daughter, as she was asleep

Gilday is also accused of opening gunfire on the homeowner, 71, who fired back at the intruder, who then fled the scene in a white Toyota Corolla

Morgan who was injured in the shootout, said he is now recovering from his wounds, but will never recover from the loss of his daughter

State Police said they do not believe Jordan was the intended target, and a motive remains unclear 

State Police are asking for the public’s help finding a man believed to have killed a former Kentucky state lawmaker’s daughter in a home invasion on Tuesday.
Authorities say Shannon Vince Gilday, 23, forced his way into former State Rep. C. Wesley Morgan’s $6.5 million Richmond mansion at around 4am Tuesday armed with a rifle.
Once inside, police said, he shot and killed Morgan’s daughter, Jordan Morgan, 32, while she was asleep. Clearly the intent was to kill as the Madison County Coroner’s Office later confirmed that Jordan Morgan had been shot ‘more than once’.

Gilday then allegedly ‘confronted’ Wesley Morgan, and the two exchanged gunfire before he fled in a white Toyota Corolla. Wesley Morgan and his wife, Jordan’s stepmother, sustained injuries in the shooting and were taken to a local hospital, where they are recovering. There’s a possibility Gilday was injured in the shooting, according to the police report.
While he remains at large, police have now issued a warrant for Gilday’s arrest. The Taylor Mill resident is  charged with murder, first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief, and two counts of attempted murder.
Authorities said on Thursday they had some clues about a possible motive behind the shooting, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, but they cannot confirm anything until they capture the suspect. They did, however, say that they do not believe Jordan was the intended target, according to Lex 18, as a preliminary investigation found no links between her and Gilday.

Kentucky State Police have previously announced they received a call at 4:30am Tuesday about a shooting at Morgan’s mansion.
At first, they were unsure how many suspects were involved in the home invasion and shooting, but after receiving an ‘incredible tip’ from outside the wealthy area, authorities now say Gilday, of Taylor Mill, Kentucky, forced his way into the mansion and opened fire.
He was seen on surveillance footage entering the home wearing either camouflage or ‘tactical style’ pants and a jacket, a dark-colored hoodie, gloves and a light-colored facemask, police announced at a news briefing Thursday.

They said he may have been injured in the gunfight with Wesley, authorities announced on Thursday, and is believed to be driving a 2016 white Toyota Corolla with minor damage to the front grill and Kentucky license plate 379-VMJ.
Gilday is described as being about six feet and about 167 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.
He is considered ‘armed and dangerous,’ Kentucky State Police warned, and urged anyone on his whereabouts to call the Kentucky State Police Post 7 at (859) 623 – 2404.
On Wednesday, Wesley, 71, broke down in tears as he spoke about losing his daughter.
He told FOX 56 he is recovering well from the gunshot wounds, but will never recover emotionally from the loss of Jordan. 
‘I’m heartbroken,’ he said as he audibly started crying. ‘I can’t understand why, and would give anything on this Earth if it would have been me rather than her.
‘I’d much rather it’d been me.’

Wesley Morgan said he was with his daughter, watching an episode of 1883, a Western-style television drama series on Paramount+, just hours before the shooting. 
‘She got up, put her arm around me and said “I love you, Daddy,” and I said “I love you, too,”‘ he recalled to the news station. ‘And then she went to bed and that son of a b**** killed her.’
He added that his ‘life will never be the same,’ saying: ‘Until the day I die, I will think of her, yes I will.’   
Jordan was described by friends and family as kind, loving and intelligent Her mother, meanwhile, said she had no enemies.
‘She was absolutely a wonderful person and the smartest person I ever knew,’ was how Lisa Foster described her daughter to the Herald-Leader on Thursday. 
‘She was always doing for other people, so selfless, funny and like a breath of fresh air to be around.
‘She was a momma’s girl, and always told me every night and every morning she loved me,’ Foster added. ‘She had no enemies.’ Foster said Jordan would text her every night, saying ‘I love you night, night,’ and in the morning she would send her mother a message saying ‘Good morning Muffin Mouse, I love you,’ referencing one of her favorite childhood stories.
‘And I would say ‘Good morning sunshine, I love you have a blessed day.’ 

Jordan Morgan previously made headlines in 2017, when she publicly accused Republican State Rep. Michael Meredith, who represents Brownsville, of sending her inappropriate text messages as part of a sexual harassment settlement involving four House Republicans.
She said at the time that she started receiving a number of messages from Meredith after she worked on Republican Matt Bevin’s successful 2015 campaign for Kentucky governor and worked with him for a year-and-a-half afterwards as a member of his communications team. 
Morgan met Meredith, she told the Courier-Journal, in 2016 when she and the rest of Gov. Bevin’s campaign staff were celebrating his victory. 
She said Meredith’s behavior was a ‘little too friendly,’ so she left the event. But afterwards, he sent her a message on Facebook saying:  ‘Where’d you go, beauty?’  She saved several messages which she said were from Meredith and provided them to Courier Journal and other media outlets.

Over the ensuing year and a half, she claimed, she received a number of messages from Meredith, including one that read: ‘You are like six foot tall with jet black hair and high heels and can probably find some way to persuade anyone about anything if force is needed lol.’
None of the text messages was ‘too extreme,’ she said; they were ‘just kind of flirty,’ but they struck her as ‘inappropriate,’ particularly because Meredith was married and in elected office.
‘He wasn’t my boss, but he was in a position of authority,’ she said.
‘You don’t want to make an enemy of a state representative, so you just laugh it off.’
Morgan said she only came forward with the inappropriate texts after it was revealed that four House Republicans were involved in a secret sexual harassment settlement with another female staffer. 
The scandal cost former House Speaker Jeff Hoover and Meredith their leadership positions, but Meredith was reinstated as chairman of the House Local Government Committee one year later.

Jordan, meanwhile, transitioned from the world of politics to legal practice, first as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney prosecuting felonies, based in Boone County. She had recently joined the Reminger law office in Lexington. 
‘Reminger wishes to express its sincere condolences to the Morgan family,’ the firm said in a statement. ‘She was a pleasant colleague and a promising attorney. We are shocked and saddened at the circumstances surrounding her unfortunate death.’
Friends and family describe her as kind, loving and intelligent, with her niece, Hayleigh Burrows, who was only 11 years younger than Jordan, saying: ‘She was just so great. Generous, selfless, funny, so funny, [and] loving.
‘She was always pushing me to do my best,’ Burrows said of her aunt, whom she described as ‘more of a best friend.’

Wesley, who served one term as a state representative for Richmond and Berea in Madison County, is also known for his quirks.  
While in office, Wesley, who owns several Kentucky liquor stores, was charged with illegally transporting alcohol across county lines. 
To do so was illegal at the time without a transporter’s license.
A judge ultimately dropped the charges, after state law was changed.
He went on to unsuccessfully challenge Senator Mitch McConnell in the state’s Republican primary in 2020.
Katie Gilday, the mother of the shooting suspect released a condolence statement to the Morgan family:

“First I want to state that I am greatly saddened for the Morgan family, friends and loved ones for the pain and suffering it is believed by the police that my son has caused them and especially for the loss of their daughter Jordan. It is a terrible tragedy.
My son Shannon Gilday, who I love so dearly, has not been of sound mind the last couple of weeks, distraught with the certainty a nuclear war is imminent. He spoke of building a bunker and the CIA following him. I tried to get him psychiatric help but to no avail.
I plead to Shannon to turn himself in so that he can get the help he so desperately needs.
Meanwhile, I thank my family and friends for their love and support and ask for our privacy as we navigate through this unthinkable tragedy.”

In the Midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Wesley Morgan listed his 14,300-square-foot, six bedroom, seven bathroom mansion for sale at the asking price of  $6.5million.
The sprawling home comes complete with a saltwater pool, steam sauna and heated floors set on 200 acres of lakefront property. 
However, perhaps its most unusual feature home is a 2,000-square-foot, fully stocked underground bunker set behind a huge steel and concrete door. The bunker alone, which reportedly, can withstand nuclear attack and the strongest of earthquakes, is valued at $3 million. 
The Republican politician started building the bunker more than a decade ago, following the election of President Barack Obama.

He said at the time that he and with hundreds of tons of chemical agents stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, south of Richmond, he decided it would be wise to build a bunker which can hold up to 30 people with separate bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room.