Goodbye Mr and Mrs Tyrrell, My Mentor, Friend, Teacher and Second Dad.

Springfield police are investigating what they are calling a double murder discovered Thursday evening.

The victims are a man who taught in area colleges and retired as an assistant superintendent in Mountain Grove schools after three decades and his wife, an Avon saleswoman and volunteer for the elderly, police said.

According to a release from police, Gary Tyrrell, 60, and Jan Tyrrell, 61, were found dead at their home at 3232 S. Greenbrier Ave., about 7 p.m. Police said they don't have a suspect.

Police Lt. Tad Peters wouldn't describe the couple's injuries or specific location in the home where they were found.

Autopsies are being conducted to determine the cause of death for each.https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2014/05/02/police-investigating-double-homicide/8613855/

 Ex-school superintendent is charged for murders of Gary and Jan Tyrrell

By Mike Landis

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A man from Ozark is accused of killing a couple from Springfield, Gary and Jan Tyrrell. Mark Porter, 53, was charged on Friday with two counts of first-degree murder. Part of the evidence against him is DNA on a coffee cup that he discarded that matches DNA on a latex glove found near Jan Tyrrell's body. 

 The Tyrrells were found dead in their home in southeast Springfield on May 2. Police refused to release the causes of death or many other details about the murders. The charging statement released on Friday says Jan
Tyrrell died of blunt force trauma to the head and Gary Tyrrell was shot twice.

Porter was superintendent in the Mountain Grove School District for two school years, 2003-2005. The superintendent's office says those are the only years that he worked in the district.

Gary Tyrrell was a longtime teacher and administrator in the Mountain Grove School District. He was an assistant superintendent to Porter from '03-05. A memorial service for the Tyrrells was in Mountain Grove, where they maintained many friends after they moved to Springfield several years ago.

Gary and Jan Tyrrell, or Mr and Mrs. Tyrell, were great people, Mr. Tyrell, was my high school history teacher in the late 80s and early 90s, Mrs. Tyrrell was the high school librarian for a short time.  I had a rough time in school, I was failing, I was being bullied, I was depressed and wanting to kill myself, One day, this man, this teacher, Gary, came to me and said I would like to talk to you, we sat in his class after the class had ended, and he said look if you don't pull your grades up you're not going to graduate, he goes I know that you are smart, I know that you can do this, I know that you have a life inside, he said if it is okay I am going to talk to your parents and see about tutoring you after class during the time you have study hall and work with you to get your grades up, and if you want to talk I am here.  I sat back and looked at him like yeah, right...I ended up going to his class and he did help me, and I ended up on the honor roll all four years of high school and even graduated, He helped me through some dark times and even kept me from killing myself, I started to have a interest in things again, after graduation I was sad as I wouldn't get to see him again or so I thought, I took a year off and then started college, I picked a civil war history class and I walked into the class and like the others waited for our professor to arrive, I was looking down at my book, skimming through it dreading the class as for me history is boring but yet Mr Tyrrell made it fun and interesting, "Good Evening Class, " I blinked, that voice sounded so familiar, I look up and my eyes go wide, I couldn't say anything I was just so excited, he sits down and pulls out the roll sheet, and starts reading off the names, he stops, when I think he got to mine and he grins and looks up, "Well..., how are you ? Come here," we meet half way and he gives me a big hug, he says to the others, "This is one of my former students she just graduated high school where I was her history teacher, for a big part of the time." He asked if I minded if he talked about me and how I was and how I got to be where I was at that time, I said sure, I cried as he talked about how he saw this dejected kid, who seemed like she had no hope, and was failing and ready to end it, he talked about how I was bullied, and teased, how I was quiet and never spoke up, he talked about how he felt he had to do something, he knew there was a spark in there, He went on to tell them how I made the honor roll, all four years, how my grades improved, how I started coming out of my shell., anyway, It was a great year for me, having him as my professor, after I graduated I was sad once again that I wouldn't get to see this man that became my friend, my mentor and second dad, He practically watched me grow up, I moved to Springfield Missouri, when I was in my late 20s, and about a year later, I was walking down the sidewalk past some houses on Greenbriar, and I kept hearing someone call my name, I look up to see a man standing in his yard, and it was Mr. Tyrrell, I asked him, you live here? He said yep for about 20 some years, I said oh wow, I just live down the block in those apartments, have been for about two years, so we talked for a while, Mrs. Tyrrell came out and we chatted as well, we kept in touch and then in 2011 I moved to San Diego to be with my boyfriend, who is now my husband, and I kept in touch with Mr. Tyrrell on facebook. In late May of 2014  I get a call from my "dad", who I don't speak with and have had a very strained relationship and still do, called me and told me Gary and Jan had been killed, they were murdered, I sat down like someone had punched me in the stomach and I just lost it, I felt like I had lost my dad, he was the man I wanted as a dad and wish he had been my dad, I felt like I couldn't breathe, the air had been sucked out of me, I haven't written about him until now or even really talked about him other than to my husband, as it's been to painful.  I can't express how much he has helped me, and what a kind gentle, soul he was, who really loved teaching and cared about his students, if anyone deserved the teacher of the year award it was this man. 

Mr Tyrrell, Thank you so much for everything that you did for me, thank you thank you thank you, if you hadn't of stepped in when you did, I wouldn't be here writing this today. You are and were my Teacher, Friend, Mentor and second dad. 

link to a website with links to the newpaper stories and such.  https://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/monsters-among-us-mark-porter-killed-gary-and-jan-tyrrell-sentenced-to-two-consecutive-life-terms/