by Al Summers
News Editor
alsummers@timescourier.com
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A suspect wanted for the shooting murder of a woman and the shooting of a man with her in Woodstock Sunday night, March 20, fled the scene and drove to Gilmer County where he committed suicide.
Mark Lamastro, 37, was wanted by Cherokee County law enforcement officers in connection with the shooting of his estranged wife, Rebecca Lynn Lamastro and Ronald Cothran in front of an apartment complex off Town Lake Parkway in Woodstock Sunday night. While turning around just inside Gilmer County, a Pickens County sheriff’s deputy on routine patrol spotted Lamastro’s truck and upon investigation, learned that the occupant of the truck was wanted in the shooting.
When the truck was searched, it was found that Lamastro had shot himself.
Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson said that investigators from the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Department handled the suicide case and investigators from Cherokee County processed the truck for evidence from the Woodstock shooting. Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison received news that Rebecca Lamastro had passed away while he was in Gilmer County at the scene.
The incident occurred near the intersection of Whitestone Road and Hwy. 515.