Samantha Deem is charged with first-degree murder in the Parkersburg shooting of Jessica Lively.

A first-degree murder charge is the filing. It is not a finding that Deem shot Lively. The News and Sentinel, citing a release from Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board, reported that the arraignment is in magistrate court but that bond has to be set in circuit court, because murder is a capital offense in West Virginia. That is a custody rule. The release is the police account of Monday afternoon. The arraignment is the next step.

The News and Sentinel reported Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, that Samantha Deem, 33, of Parkersburg, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jessica Lively, 35, of Raleigh County. The paper cited a press release issued early Tuesday by Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board. WV MetroNews reported the same charge and said Deem is in the Wood County Holding Center awaiting arraignment. A murder charge names a defendant. It does not decide the case.

The release, as the News and Sentinel reported it, says officers were dispatched at about 1:32 p.m. Monday to 800 Seventh St. Lively was found lying in the hallway of the apartment building. Emergency crews tried to save her, and she died. Investigators said Lively and a man went to the building to speak with a friend who lives there. They knocked, Deem answered, the two women argued, and Deem retrieved a firearm and shot Lively once in the chest. WV MetroNews described the man as a friend of Lively's and the weapon as a handgun, and said witnesses told police the argument escalated before the shot. The man was not named. WV News reported the address as the Morris Building apartments and said Lively was pronounced dead at the scene. That is the account in the police release. It is the version at the charging stage.

The release says the investigation continued into the evening, witnesses identified Deem as the shooter, and she surrendered to officers. She was booked into the Wood County Holding Facility. The News and Sentinel reported she is to be arraigned in Wood County Magistrate Court, and that bond must be set in circuit court because murder is a capital offense. The release says Lively and Deem knew each other and that police do not see any further danger to the public. It asks anyone with information to contact Detective Eichhorn. The department thanked the Wood County Sheriff's Office, the West Virginia State Police, the Parkersburg Fire Department, and Camden Clark Ambulance Service. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.