Southern Indiana mother pushing for justice more than 100 days after daughter’s shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - The newest addition to Shawnee Goodman’s home is a little furrier, and a lot more energetic than she may have asked for.

Yet, she’s grown close to Bentley, her three-year-old blue heeler.

“He’s very close,” Goodman said. “He’s very loving. He’s very affectionate.”

Goodman and Bentley have been building their bond ever since she picked him up from a foster handler roughly a week ago.

However, this bond between woman and dog was created years ago, by Goodman’s daughter Brittney Boman.

“I don’t know if I remind him of her, but I am very much his person now and I don’t get very far away from him, ever,” Goodman said.

Boman got Bentley three years ago. He was her companion and followed her everywhere.

Bentley was even with Boman on October 2, 2022, when she was shot in the face and left to die in the woods of Henryville, Indiana.

“And he wouldn’t let EMS get close to her,” Goodman said. “They’re very protective of their owners. So he ended up going to puppy jail.”

While Bentley went away, and eventually to a foster owner, Boman was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to her cheek.

She survived for almost 90 days.

On December 30, after fighting several infection, Boman died from her injuries.

“I really thought, until she passed away, that she was going to make it,” Goodman said. “I think the last infection that she had, she was in so much pain and just couldn’t ever get rid of an infection. Her lung kept filling up. The last one, she’s like, ‘I just don’t want to do it anymore.’”

A spokesperson for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Boman’s boyfriend at the time, Derek Pixley, was arrested the night of the shooting and charged with violating a protective order she had filed against him.

That spokesperson also confirmed Pixley has been in jail ever since, but has not been charged in connection to her death.

Goodman told WAVE News Pixley’s relationship with her daughter was violent for years.

However, while in rehab in the months before her death, Goodman said her daughter never gave her a straight answer about the night she was shot.

“We talked a lot,” Goodman said. “The one thing that she really wasn’t willing to talk about was him, at all. She wasn’t willing to talk about that night. She never did give any definite answers what happened, so I still don’t know. I don’t know why she didn’t want us to know. She really didn’t didn’t talk about him much at all. It was like he didn’t exist.”

Despite what happened, Goodman was determined not to let her daughter die in vain.

She’s developed a partnership with St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities in New Albany, to serve as a lifeline for women who’ve been abused.

She’s also taken her grief to social media.

For 131 days, she’s posted messages to Facebook, raising public awareness to the dangers of domestic violence and how it can affect women.

“Until he came into her life, she was my best friend.,” Goodman said. “We talked every single day. I’m a nurse. She became a nurse. So when he came along, I really lost my best friend. She changed, and I don’t know why she didn’t leave him then.”

Goodman said she will continue to post her messages and tell her daughter’s story through social media until an arrest is made in the case.

All the while, Bentley will be by her side as she pushes for answers, closure and justice.

“[It’s given me] healing,” Goodman said. “All I care about is if I saved one, one woman I would be happy, and I am way past that goal.”

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Boman’s case as a homicide. As of Friday afternoon, the investigation is open and active.

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