Penny Boom’s family described decades of work, friendship and caregiving after police accused her husband in her shooting death.
WELLSBORO, Pa. — Penny Marie Boom spent years working in a local hospital, cooking for a large family and walking through the town where she had lived most of her life. Weeks after her July 30 death, those details have become part of the public record alongside a criminal case accusing her husband, Kenneth Jerome Boom, 62, of fatally shooting her at their Delmar Township home.
Boom, 61, was found dead after Pennsylvania State Police were called to the couple’s Route 287 residence early July 31. Her husband initially reported that he had accidentally shot her while cleaning a 12-gauge shotgun, police said. Investigators later charged him with criminal homicide after examining circumstances that included messages Penny Boom allegedly sent during an argument, a neighbor’s account of hearing a sound from the area of the home and statements Kenneth Boom allegedly made to a friend before calling 911. He also faces aggravated-assault, reckless-endangerment and weapons-related charges. The charges are allegations and do not establish guilt.
An obituary published after Penny Boom’s death gives a substantially different starting point for understanding the case than the criminal complaint. Born Penny Marie Gleason on Jan. 14, 1965, in Blossburg, she was described as a lifelong Wellsboro resident and a valued employee in the radiology department at UPMC Wellsboro. Her family wrote that she often took early morning walks in Wellsboro Cemetery and walked around the Green on lunch breaks. The obituary remembered a woman who kept friends laughing, welcomed relatives into her home and paid close attention to the meals and traditions they loved. A memorial service was later arranged in Wellsboro for Sept. 13.
Her family’s account also described a household built around children, grandchildren and a great-grandson. Penny Boom enjoyed summer fires, grilling, motorcycle rides and supporting community causes, according to the obituary. It said she contributed to benefits and had long saved pull tabs for Ronald McDonald House programs. The notice listed her mother, Jean Morgan; daughter Andrea Ilniski; son Avery Bentley; several grandchildren; a great-grandson; brothers, nieces and friends among those surviving her. It also said she had endured the death of a daughter, Misty Bacon, nine years earlier. The obituary said she had spent 38 years as the foundation of her household through medical problems, losses and family milestones.
The homicide investigation began with a domestic dispute on the night of July 30, according to state police and reports based on the criminal complaint. Investigators said Kenneth and Penny Boom had been arguing at their residence in Delmar Township, just outside Wellsboro. One reported subject of the dispute was the couple’s cats, which Kenneth Boom wanted removed from the home. Police said Penny Boom told him she would leave. The disagreement became important to the investigation because of what she was allegedly communicating to someone outside the house at roughly the same period.
A friend and former neighbor told investigators that Penny Boom sent messages describing a threat made by her husband, according to reports of the affidavit. In one, she said she had told him she was going to leave and that he said he would shoot her. In another, she made clear that she wanted someone to know whom she feared if anything happened. The messages are allegations contained in the investigative record rather than findings made at trial, but they caused police to question the later explanation that the shotgun had discharged unintentionally. Kenneth Boom reportedly acknowledged to investigators that his wife had talked about leaving after the argument over the cats.
Investigators also tried to determine when the shooting occurred. A neighbor reported hearing a “pop” from the direction of the Boom home between about 8 and 9 p.m. Police believe Penny Boom was shot that evening. Yet authorities were not called to the home until the following morning. Local reporting said emergency responders were requested shortly after 5 a.m. July 31 after state police received a report of a shooting. By the time medics were heading toward the scene, police had encountered circumstances that led to the medical response being canceled. Penny Boom was found dead in the living room, with a spent shotgun shell nearby, according to authorities.
The intervening hours became another focus of the case. A different friend told police that Kenneth Boom tried to reach him 11 times between 3:19 and 4:34 a.m. The friend answered at about 4:40 a.m. and said Boom told him, “I did something bad.” According to the police account, Boom said he had shot his wife after they argued about the cats and she threatened to leave. The friend told investigators he expected Boom to say the shooting had been accidental but said Boom did not use that explanation in the conversation. The friend told him to contact 911, reports of the affidavit said.
At about 5:15 a.m., Boom made the emergency call. This time, police said, he reported that he had shot his wife in the head accidentally while cleaning his 12-gauge shotgun. Troopers who arrived said his breath smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred. He later demonstrated for investigators how he said the weapon had discharged during cleaning. Local reporting based on the complaint described the gun as a Silver Eagle semiautomatic 12-gauge shotgun. Police did not accept the cleaning explanation as resolving the death and instead compared it with the earlier messages, witness statements, physical evidence and Boom’s reported conversation with his friend.
The investigation moved quickly from a death inquiry to a criminal prosecution. State police initially reported that a 61-year-old woman had been found dead and that a 62-year-old man involved in the incident had been taken to the Mansfield state police barracks for questioning. By the afternoon of July 31, Kenneth Boom had been charged through a Tioga County magisterial district court. Public court-record summaries listed criminal homicide, two aggravated-assault counts, reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime with intent. Magisterial District Judge Robert L. Repard arraigned Boom, and local outlets reported that he was committed to the Tioga County Prison without bail.
The difference between the public memories of Penny Boom and the allegations surrounding her last hours is especially pronounced. Her obituary remembers ordinary routines — walks, cooking, family visits, jokes, motorcycle rides and work at the hospital — while the criminal case is built around a narrow span of communications and events inside and around her home. Both records concern the same person, but only one describes the decades that came before her death. Her relatives wrote that she made the people around her feel loved and that she looked for ways to ease other people’s burdens even when she carried significant burdens of her own.
Initial court reports listed an Aug. 11 preliminary hearing for Kenneth Boom, but the accessible sources reviewed through Sept. 20 did not establish what occurred at that hearing or provide a later confirmed court date. No conviction has been reported in the material reviewed for this article. What remains established at this stage is that Penny Boom died from a gunshot at her home, her husband reported the shooting as accidental, and state police filed a homicide case after collecting evidence they said cast doubt on that account. Further court proceedings will determine whether prosecutors can prove the charges.
Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.