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Niagara Gazette - 4/21/2008
TEXAS: Former Lewiston woman slain
By Rick Pfeiffer
E-mail Rick
Greater Niagara Newspapers

He heard three pops and then saw his wife Barbara, lying on the ground.

As he drove up the main driveway of his ranch in Stockdale, TX on March 20, David Coull knew something was terribly wrong.

“He knew immediately what (the pops) were,” said Charlotte Bruening.

Coull’s mother-in-law and his wife Barbara’s mom, Bruening said her son-in-law recognized the sound of gunshots and instantly wondered where the couple’s 11-year-old twin boys were.

“He (David) went straight to the house and the boys were there watching TV,” Bruening said. “So he called the sheriff and they told him to lock the doors and stay right there.”

A short time later, deputies had Lee Van Tollefson, 61, a visitor from North Dakota who had been living in his mobile home on the Coull’s ranch, in custody and were charging him with the murder of 49-year-old Barbara Bruening Coull.

A coroner’s report would later determine that the former Lewiston resident and Niagara-Wheatfield grad had died of “multiple gunshots to the head and neck.”

“He (Van Tollefson) had been staying on the ranch since December,” Bruening said. “He was living in his mobile home and (the Coulls) had given him permission to stay there.”

Bruening said she hasn’t spoken to the Wilson County Texas Sheriff’s Department investigators who are handling her daughter’s case. However, she believes it may have been a dispute over money that triggered the tragedy.

“I don’t know what the financial conditions were (for Van Tollefson to stay at the ranch),” Bruening said, “I guess that was what the confrontation (between her daughter and Van Tollefson) was about, though I don’t know for sure.”

Van Tollefson is currently jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail. Texas authorities say he faces five to 99 years in prison.

Bruening said there was no warning that Van Tollefson may have been violent.

“I really don’t understand,” she said. “He had taken the children to school when Barbara was sick. I think he may have been too quick on the trigger.”

Coull, who moved to Texas after graduating from SUNY Fredonia, had been working as a substitute teacher there. Her mother said, “it’s impossible to comprehend (that she’s dead).”

“She was gutsy, sometimes too much for her own good,” her mom recalled. “She had a good sense of humor and she really loved those boys.”

On the Web site of a Stockdale newspaper, a close friend left her thoughts about Coull’s death.

“I can attest to the amazing character, humor, love of family and beauty of Barbara,” said friend Michelle Berns. “Our deepest sympathies are with (her) family at this tragic time.”

Barbara married COULL, David George III [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]