BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Bradford County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating the shooting deaths of two people on Northeast 6th Lane, off of State Road 230 near the Bradford-Clay County line.
Sheriff’s Col. Brad Smith said that after receiving a 911 hang-up call at 5:15 a.m., Thursday, January 29, deputies responded to the double-wide and found 50-year-old Loyd Alan Kerr dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Officers also found a weapon near the man’s body.
A neighbor told deputies that a female lived in the trailer, and officers searched the residence, but found no one. They then discovered Kerr’s estranged wife, Rachael Kerr, 43, about 50 yards away from the double-wide with a gunshot wound to the neck.
She was pronounced dead by EMS personnel shortly after they arrived and after deputies and medical personnel had attempted life-saving procedures.
Smith said that at the time of the incident, a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old were in the home but ran to a neighbor’s house unharmed.
The colonel said most of the details of the incident were reported to deputies by a female neighbor who went to Rachael Kerr’s home after being notified of the disturbance.
“She’s the one who basically intervened when he was escorting the female out of the house,” Smith said. “He turned his attention towards the neighbor, and when he did, that’s when the female ran out of the house.”
Smith said Rachael Kerr, whom he said was tied up in some manner, likely ran to an auto transport trailer, which was parked about 50 yards away from the home. That is where deputies found her.
Loyd Kerr’s body was found near a porch attached to the doublewide.
The alleged shooter was arrested by Bradford deputies on January 20 for putting tracking devices on Rachael Kerr’s GMC Yukon in October 2025.
When deputies contacted Loyd Kerr about the tracking devices, he was incarcerated in the Clay County Jail for violation of an injunction for protection against domestic violence, a probation violation, and resisting an officer without violence.
The 50-year-old was released on a $200,000 bond the day following his arrest by a Levy County judge, who presided over Bradford County first appearance hearings on January 21.
