Action News has learned 48-year-old Kathryn Ellis recently looked into buying a life insurance policy on her husband Robert Ellis.
Detectives say she shot and killed her husband at their Kingsburg home Wednesday night.
Action News spoke with a Valley insurance agent who says a month and half ago Kathryn Ellis expressed interest in a life insurance policy on her husband Robert.
Just a day and a half after Robert's death, neighbors still don't know why anyone would kill him.
People living in this peaceful Kingsburg neighborhood still don't understand how or why their neighbor was shot and killed Wednesday.
Investigators say based on physical evidence in the home, Ellis' wife Kathryn pulled the trigger.
"I think everybody's still in shock. I'm still in shock, it hasn't really set in, I know for my family," Cody McGuire of Kingsburg said.
McGuire, like dozens of others living in the area, was baffled when Kathryn Ellis was arrested Thursday.
Action News has learned Kathryn asked a local insurance agent about buying a life insurance policy on Robert several weeks before investigators say she murdered him.
The agent says the policy was never purchased through their company.
"It's really unbelievable. You always hear about the good on the outside, but you don't know what goes on behind closed doors. And I don't think anybody had any idea over that, because I know we didn't," McGuire said.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Office says initially Kathryn Ellis told Kingsburg Police someone broke into their home and shot her husband. It's a story investigators now dispute.
Action News has also learned the couple had been through some financial troubles but neighbors say the pair appeared to be picture perfect on the outside.
Either way, McGuire said, he and his family are concerned for the couple's only son - a young boy whose father is dead and his mother facing murder charges.
"I think the community definitely needs to, at least, let Tommy know that people care about this incident, that people love him. The whole community just needs to come together, even if it's just praying for him," McGuire said.
Kathryn Ellis is still in jail facing one count of murder and a one million dollar bond. Charges have yet to be filed.
