{"id":556,"date":"2024-09-19T15:36:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/?p=556"},"modified":"2024-09-19T15:36:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T15:36:46","slug":"star-college-gymnast-21-shot-dead-in-off-campus-home-23-year-old-boyfriend-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/?p=556","title":{"rendered":"Star college gymnast, 21, shot dead in off campus home, 23-year-old boyfriend arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Loved ones are completely shattered by the \u201cheartbreaking\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/murder\/\">death<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/college\/\">Kara Welsh<\/a>, a 21-year-old star\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.newsner.com\/tag\/athlete\/\">gymnast<\/a>, who was shot to death by a man identified by college friends as her boyfriend.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The national champion was found dead in her off-campus apartment on August 30, and a friend of the couple says he \u201cbeats\u201d himself up for not sharing \u201cjust one more\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>moment that maybe \u201ccould change\u201d what happened.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep reading to learn about Welsh\u2019s tragic death.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday August 31, Sierra Brooks learned Kara Welsh, her best friend and former teammate, was shot to death the night before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t even wrap my head around how someone could do this, let alone to such a beautiful person,\u201d she writes in a tribute to the 21-year-old Welsh, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW) student who was majoring in business and economics.<\/p>\n<p>Welsh, a gymnast, also won an individual title on the vault in 2023.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe id=\"instagram-embed-0\" class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C_Yj4PRRIJs\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=640&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fen.newsner.com&amp;rp=%2Fnews%2Fstar-college-gymnast-21-shot-dead-in-off-campus-home-23-year-old-boyfriend-arrested%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwY2xjawFZI9ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZ8KtQk7ht147xp6ALIBHKJCICLqtOPA890eceAE05emg8uZX184nbDg9A_aem_fqhx3IhY0#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A3576.5999999940395%7D\" height=\"1328\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>According to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitewater-wi.gov\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=653\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">statement<\/a>, the student, from Plainfield, Illinois, was found dead in an off-campus apartment about 11:54 p.m. on August 30.<\/p>\n<p>She was shot multiple times.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-6f2a8c3b1e449bf98ea96eecc90b366c\" class=\"newsner-6f2a8c3b1e449bf98ea96eecc90b366c newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>When police arrived, a 23-year-old male who was known to Welsh was also in the home and \u201cit was determined that leading up to the shooting, an altercation had occurred between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-heartbreaking\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Heartbreaking\u2019<\/h2>\n<div id=\"newsner-1997175498\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely heartbreaking to receive a phone call like this one. Kara, you deserved the world and more,\u201d shares Brooks, who in her earlier years trained with Welsh at the Aspire Gymnastics Academy. \u201cWish I could just see you one more time. Wish I could laugh with you just one more time. Wish I could hug you one more time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aspire also shared several photos of the star gymnast along with a touching tribute for the young woman on their Facebook site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Kara grew, so did Aspire. She was a constant in a sport that is filled with ups and downs. She was full of life and full of personality,\u201d the training center writes. \u201cKara had a way of communicating through facial expressions that was second to none. Aspire lost a piece of its heart today. Kara, we love you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/announcements.uww.edu\/Announcement\/Details\/18454\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Corey King<\/a>, chancellor at UWW,\u00a0released a statement on August 31 and calling Welsh \u201ca standout member of the Warhawk gymnastics team,\u201d he shares that \u201cnews of Kara\u2019s death is heartbreaking for our close-knit university community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hate that evil touched this sweet girl\u2019s life,\u201d writes a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=905243714956309&amp;set=pcb.905243741622973\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">friend on Facebook<\/a>, who shares the tribute posted by Aspire. Referring to Welsh\u2019s sister Kaeli, the netizen continues, \u201cThe Welsh girls showed us how to be gym sisters but so much more. Kara was all heart. The loss is unfathomable.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-i-beat-myself-up\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018I beat myself up\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Police have not yet released the name of the suspect as he has not yet been officially charged.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-1665619936\" class=\"newsner-article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p>But friends reveal the pair were dating, and the man, identified as Chad Richards, was helping Welsh move into her apartment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"newsner-443278d9efec69f3519e04bee601eae1\" class=\"newsner-443278d9efec69f3519e04bee601eae1 newsner-amp_article_inside_content\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgymnasticsnow1%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02aAVwAey9J9st6RhCx52iWrDWoGYKZjq4sedHwxpareA4AqnrkKeSrPn91Grp4f5Xl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"462\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes I beat myself up, if I was able to see them that day maybe\u2026just one more joke one more memory we could make\u2026could change\u2026\u201d says Brayten Wilkerson, a friend of both Welsh and the suspect, who was a member of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/uwwsports.com\/sports\/wrestling\/roster\/chad-richards\/16011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">UWW wrestling team<\/a>. Speaking with ABC affiliate\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisn.com\/article\/wisconsin-shooting-gymnast-killed-friends-and-faculty-tribute\/62037066\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WISN<\/a>, Wilkerson continues, \u201cKara was a sweetheart. She was one of the best people you could meet. Her family did a great job raising her \u2013 a wonderful woman.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loved ones are completely shattered by the \u201cheartbreaking\u201d\u00a0death\u00a0of\u00a0Kara Welsh, a 21-year-old star\u00a0gymnast, who was shot to death by a man identified by college friends as her boyfriend. The national champion was found dead in her off-campus apartment on August 30, and a friend of the couple says he \u201cbeats\u201d himself up for not sharing \u201cjust &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}