US — Harrisonville, Missouri. Michael Adams, a man who identifies as a woman, was in the process of feminizing his appearance with hormones, growing out his hair and nails, and had renamed himself Mischelle Sabrina Adams when the then-37-year-old shot to death Amber Hartwig, his live-in girlfriend and mother of his two children.

36-year-old Ms Hartwig and Mr Adams had been high school sweethearts.

Ms Hartwig was reputedly a soft-spoken woman who was loved by neighborhood children.

Mr Adams, who had a reputation as a high school dropout and lazy drunk who refused to work, was transitioning to an effeminate appearance. Ms Hartwig neither understood nor approved of the cross-dressing or ‘transition’, according to a discussion she had with family shortly before her death.

These issues were the source of an increasing number of arguments between the pair, and it reached the boiling point on July 14, 2009.

On that day, Ms Hartwig told their 18-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son that she was leaving their father.

As the children packed to leave the home with their mother, Mr Adams shot Ms Hartwig in the head in cold blood, and then shot himself in the chest.

Hearing the shots, the couple’s daughter entered the room to find her mother dead on the floor, and her father sitting on the floor near the body, casually smoking a cigarette.

The self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest was only superficial, though Mr Adams insisted to ambulance workers that he wanted to die. He later claimed to have lost his memory, and said he could not remember his own children or where he lived.

Mr Adams entered a plea of guilty to second-degree murder, and is serving 15 years in prison for homicide and four years for a weapons charge. As the sentences will run concurrently, Mr Adams is not expected to serve more than 15 years.

The children were placed with their grandparents.