My daughter was killed in a murder-suicide by somebody I trusted to like her… simply weeks after the tragedy here is why I forgive them

It was an ordinary Monday morning. Kara Hanning had just begun her work week at her banking job when her phone lit up.

It was a text from a former co-worker. The woman had been watching the news: there had been some sort of incident on the Louisiana road where Hanning’s ex, James Lee Sadler, lived with his family. The area was swarmed by police cars and ambulances.

Hanning’s daughter, Adalynn, two, had stayed for the weekend and overnight.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Hanning, 30, said, ‘I just knew something terrible had happened.’

Hanning texted her daughter’s babysitter with trembling hands only to learn that James had not shown up for the scheduled drop-off before 9am. Panic-stricken and filled with an increasing sense of dread, Hanning checked Facebook, spotting his truck on the live news feed.

She knew she had to get there as soon as possible, but when she arrived she was met with unimaginable horror. As she broke through the yellow crime scene tape and ran up the lawn a police officer approached her. His despairing face said it all.

She fell to her knees, struggling for breath. In that moment, Hanning knew that Adalynn was dead.

On May 5, 2025, Adalynn’s grandfather, Leroy Sadler, 60, shot and killed the toddler, along with his wife, Judy, 64, and his son James, 29.

To most, the murder would be an unforgiveable act. But as Hanning struggles to come to terms with what happened, the grieving mother has already pardoned the killer. 

In fact, she plans to attend Leroy’s funeral to pay her respects to a man who, she says, hid his emotions so much that they finally imploded.

With remarkable composure she explained, ‘I don’t want to think about Adalynn and feel bitter and angry. It’s better to show some compassion.’

Now, in a heartbreaking interview, Hanning is remembering her daughter as the spirited child that she was.

‘She was unexpected, but I’d always wanted to be a mom,’ Hanning said. ‘I was so excited to meet our baby.’

Adalynn Mae Sadler, whom Hanning shared with James, was born five weeks early in March 2023 – and her outgoing personality shone from an early age.

‘She took her first steps two months before her first birthday and was walking before we knew it,’ Hanning recalled. ‘She was just so smart and inquisitive.’

While the toddler loved to carry her mom’s purse around – and was gifted her own pink miniature version, complete with the sparkly initial ‘A,’ for Christmas – she also wasn’t afraid of some dirt.

‘She used to go outside with our German shepherd, Sampson, and run straight into the mud and roll around with him,’ Hanning smiled.

When Hanning and James split in September 2024, Adalynn divided her time between her parents’ households.

‘Our relationship wasn’t working out and we didn’t want our daughter to grow up in an unhappy home where we were fighting all the time,’ Hanning explained.

The pair met in 2017, when Hanning worked at an outdoors store in Shreveport, Louisiana, and James was a customer.

After becoming romantically involved a year later, they lived together in the nearby town of Keithville for four years before getting pregnant with Adalynn, who they amicably co-parented after their breakup.

James, who worked in the oil industry overseeing drilling sites, would care for her at his parents’ house every other week.

Adalynn loved staying with her granddad and step-grandmother but was particularly close to Leroy.

‘She followed him everywhere,’ Hanning said. ‘She’d watch him fiddling around in the garage or working in the yard. He bought her so many knickknacks and toys and couldn’t do enough for her because he loved her so much.’

But Leroy’s devotion to his granddaughter wasn’t enough to save her that ill-fated Monday morning when, as Hanning described it, he ‘lost his mind,’ shooting dead his wife, son and granddaughter before turning the gun on himself.

The days that followed Adalynn’s death were a blur, and Hanning leaned on the help of family and friends to arrange the two-year-old’s funeral, which fell on Mother’s Day on May 10.

The little girl lay in an open casket while Hanning spoke about the brief but precious time they’d spent together. ‘I don’t really know where I got the strength, but I wanted to honor my baby,’ she told the Daily Mail.

She went to James’s funeral a few days later and also plans to attend the funerals for Leroy and Judy, who are still awaiting burial.

Hanning knows that many will struggle to understand what drives her to want to attend the funeral of the man who killed her only child.

But, for the bereaved mom, it is important to remember the man he was before his acts of violence took away so much. She said, ‘I know a lot of people won’t understand, but I want to be there for Adalynn’s granddad, too.’

In her search for answers following the tragedy, Hanning said that, looking back, Leroy had shown signs of forgetfulness. He often misplaced tools in his garage or repeated himself when he spoke.

‘I didn’t really think anything of it at the time, but now I’m wondering if he was headed towards some kind of dementia,’ she said.

She believes Leroy hid his emotions through his own pain and loss such as the death of his beloved step-daughter — Judy’s daughter, Joni — from heart failure.

And he never talked about the strain of caring for Judy, who required oxygen due to a debilitating respiratory disease.

‘He bottled things up like a lot of men,’ Hanning explained. ‘He saw himself as the head of the family and didn’t want to show any weakness.’

She added, ‘It upsets me to think that he couldn’t ask for support.’

Perhaps it all became too much, she said, and he ‘had an episode when he forgot who he was and the people around him and blacked out.’

Yet, remarkably, Hanning forgives him; after all, no amount of negativity could bring her daughter back.

‘I don’t have any spite or hate in my heart,’ she admitted. ‘I can be angry at his actions, but not at him.’

As for Adalynn, Hanning will always hold a special place in her heart for her vivacious daughter and the few but cherished years they had together. Her absence is so raw, she could only bring herself to remove the child’s car seat from her car five weeks after her death.

‘I’ve always called her “my bright light” who came to us for a reason,’ she said. ‘The memories we share will always bring joy and happiness.’