Rio Claro moth­er Kellyann Lemessy was am­bushed and killed in her car as she ar­rived home just be­fore noon to­day.

Po­lice con­firmed that her tod­dler and nine-year-old daugh­ter were with her at the time, but they were not in­jured.

Lemessy, 38, was at­tacked as she ar­rived at her rental apart­ment along the Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road, near Laz­zari Road, short­ly af­ter 12 o’clock. She had not yet switched off her Maz­da 3 when two masked gun­men opened fire.

Po­lice be­lieve her ba­by, who is al­most two years old, was on her lap and that Lemessy shield­ed the child from the gun­fire. Lemessy was shot in the head and body and died at the scene.

Lemessy, a moth­er of three, worked as a free­lance cor­re­spon­dent with CNC3, cov­er­ing the Ma­yaro and Rio Claro area.

Rel­a­tives, in­clud­ing her moth­er and sib­lings, gath­ered as homi­cide de­tec­tives, crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors and oth­er of­fi­cers processed the scene. This is the sec­ond tragedy to strike the fam­i­ly in less than a year.

In June 2025, Lemessy’s sis­ter Cassieann was shot and killed in her car a short dis­tance from her home along Church Street, Ma­yaro. A man has been charged in con­nec­tion with that mur­der.

Last year, Lemessy and an­oth­er sis­ter were charged with caus­ing griev­ous bod­i­ly harm to a broth­er, af­ter they were ac­cused of throw­ing boil­ing wa­ter on him. They were grant­ed $200,000 bail.

Po­lice al­so found a white stolen wag­on aban­doned a short dis­tance away, which in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve was used as the get­away ve­hi­cle.

Po­lice have not yet dis­closed a mo­tive.