Don Spirit Explained: Who He Was and What Happened in Bell, Florida (2014)

Don Spirit was a 51-year-old Florida man who, on 18 September 2014, shot and killed his 28-year-old daughter and her six children in the small town of Bell, Florida, before turning the gun on himself. He called 911 himself to report what he had done, told the dispatcher he would shoot himself when deputies arrived, and then did exactly that. As of October 2026, authorities have never established a clear motive — and despite persistent online rumours, there is no dedicated Netflix documentary about the case. This article explains who Don Spirit was, what happened in Bell, Florida, on that day, and what is known about the earlier death of his young son — all from the official record and reputable reporting.

At a Glance: Don Spirit

• Who: Don Spirit (also given as Don Charles Spirit in some reports), 51, of Bell, Florida, a town of about 350 people roughly 30 miles west of Gainesville.
• What: On Thursday, 18 September 2014, he fatally shot his adult daughter and her six children at a rural home in Bell, then shot himself after a brief exchange with deputies, according to the Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office.
• The victims: Sarah Lorraine Spirit, 28; and her six children — Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11; Kylie Kuhlmann, 9; Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8; Destiny Stewart, 5; Brandon Stewart, 4; and Alanna Stewart, born in June 2014.
• The weapon: A .45-calibre handgun, per the Associated Press; the sheriff’s office and the FDLE said they were looking into how Spirit, as a felon, had obtained it.
• The motive: The sheriff said plainly that he “didn’t have a motive” and that “there’s still a lot of unanswered questions. There’s going to be questions that we’re never going to get answered,” per the Associated Press.
• The earlier case: In 2001, Spirit accidentally shot his 8-year-old son, Kyle, on a hunting trip. It was ruled accidental, but Spirit, a convicted felon, served about three years in prison for possessing a firearm.
• Status as of October 2026: The case is closed. Spirit died at the scene; no one else was charged.

Who Was Don Spirit?

Don Spirit was a 51-year-old resident of Bell, Florida, a tiny rural community in Gilchrist County in the north of the state. Public records cited by the Associated Press showed an extensive criminal history stretching back decades: an arrest in Tampa in 1990 on a felony fugitive warrant, plus charges including misdemeanour battery, drug offences and depriving a child of food and shelter.

In 1998, he was convicted of felony possession of marijuana, according to a charging affidavit cited by the Associated Press. That conviction made him a convicted felon — which meant, under the law, that he was barred from owning firearms. That status would matter twice: once in 2001, when he killed his young son, and again in 2014, when investigators had to ask how a felon had obtained the handgun used in Bell.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Spirit was released from prison in February 2006 after serving a gun-related sentence. What he did in the years after his release — and what led to the events of 18 September 2014 — remains, in the sheriff’s own words, largely unanswered.

What Happened in Bell, Florida, on 18 September 2014?

On the afternoon of Thursday, 18 September 2014, Don Spirit called 911 from his home in Bell. The recording of that call, released later by the sheriff’s office and obtained by WFTV, is chilling for its calmness. Spirit told the Gilchrist County dispatcher that he had shot his daughter and all six of her children, and that he intended to shoot himself when deputies arrived.

“I just shot my daughter and shot all my grandkids, and I’ll be sitting on my step, and when you get here, I’m going to shoot myself,” Spirit said, as quoted in the Associated Press account of the recording. “Every one of them are dead,” he told the dispatcher.

When deputies arrived, Spirit was still alive and outside the home. After a brief verbal exchange, he sustained a self-inflicted gunshot and died, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The bodies of his daughter and her six children were found “all over the property,” Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz said, according to the Associated Press report.

Schultz said Spirit was the only suspect in the killings and that some other people were left alive at the home. The community, he said, was “devastated” by what had happened.

Who Were the Victims?

The victims were identified by the sheriff’s office as Sarah Lorraine Spirit, 28, and her six children, who ranged in age from 11 years old down to a baby born in June 2014. The children’s names, as given by the sheriff’s office and reported by the Associated Press, were:

• Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11
• Kylie Kuhlmann, 9
• Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8
• Destiny Stewart, 5
• Brandon Stewart, 4
• Alanna Stewart, born in June 2014

The sheriff did not publicly say whether the 28-year-old Sarah Spirit was the mother of all of the slain children, and deputies had been to the home in the past for various reasons, according to the Associated Press report. The Gilchrist County school district sent grief counsellors to local schools, including Bell Elementary, which some of the children attended.

Why Did Don Spirit Do It?

The short answer is that nobody knows. In the days after the shooting, Sheriff Schultz said plainly that he “didn’t have a motive” — and that “there’s still a lot of unanswered questions. There’s going to be questions that we’re never going to get answered” — and as of October 2026, no motive has ever been established in the official record.

That is worth stating directly, because true-crime content online has filled the gap with speculation. The sheriff’s own position at the time was captured by the Associated Press: “There’s still a lot of unanswered questions. There’s going to be questions that we’re never going to get answered,” Sheriff Schultz said.

The one part of the story that does add context — without answering the why — is that the Spirit family had come to the attention of Florida’s child-welfare system. The Miami Herald account of the DCF involvement, as quoted by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, said that child protection investigators had confronted the family two weeks before the shooting, describing what they found as a “volatile mix”: two drug-abusing adults, six small children and a history of violence. The Herald called the shooting what it described as “is believed to be the largest loss of life in a single family with a child welfare history ever in Florida.” But nothing in that record explains why Spirit acted on that day.

What Happened in the 2001 Hunting Trip That Killed His Son?

Thirteen years before Bell, Don Spirit had already killed a member of his own family. On a 2001 hunting trip in Osceola County, Don Spirit shot his 8-year-old son, Kyle, in the head. The boy died.

The details of that day came from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, as reported by the Orlando Sentinel in 2003: Spirit was walking through the woods with Kyle and an older son when he pointed out rust on the muzzle of his rifle. The rifle fired, hitting Kyle in the head.

Spirit was not charged with manslaughter. Because he was a convicted felon — the 1998 marijuana conviction — he was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He pleaded guilty and served about three years in prison, being released in February 2006, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. The shooting itself was ruled accidental.

That history made the 2014 case harder for investigators to leave unanswered on one point: as a felon, Spirit was barred from owning firearms, so the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the sheriff’s office investigated how he had obtained the .45-calibre handgun. The outcome of that line of inquiry has not been prominently reported.

Why Do People Think There Is a Don Spirit Netflix Documentary?

Searches for a Don Spirit documentary on Netflix are common — but as of October 2026, no dedicated Netflix documentary about the case has been confirmed. The confusion is understandable. The 911 recording is one of the most analysed true-crime calls in the genre, and it has been covered at length by podcasts and by YouTube channels whose deep dives use production values that mimic major streaming platforms. Watch a forty-minute breakdown of the call and it is easy to remember it as a Netflix special.

It was not. There is no widely documented Netflix title about Don Spirit. The case’s “documentary” life exists in podcasts, online archives and YouTube breakdowns rather than on the platform — and readers should treat claims that one exists as unverified.

What Has Happened Since 2014?

Because Spirit died at the scene, the criminal case ended with him. No one else was charged, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it was looking for no one else in connection with the shootings. The Bell investigation was a county- and state-level matter; cases that draw in federal agencies run on different machinery — as this site’s coverage of the Elaine Angene Escoe FBI fugitive case shows, the FBI brings wanted notices, rewards and public tip lines to a manhunt.

The case has continued to circulate in true-crime circles mainly because of the two features that set it apart: the recorded 911 call in which Spirit calmly described what he had done, and the 2001 death of his son Kyle — the accident that led to his felon-in-possession conviction and prison time. Together they make Don Spirit one of the most discussed names in American true-crime history, even though no trial ever took place and no verdict was ever rendered.

As of October 2026, everything verifiable about the case still comes from the same sources that reported it in 2014: the Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office statements, the released 911 recording, the preliminary autopsy results, the Florida Department of Corrections records and the contemporaneous reporting of the Associated Press. Anything beyond that — motives, theories, re-enactments — is speculation.

The Bottom Line

Don Spirit was the 51-year-old Bell, Florida man who, on 18 September 2014, killed his daughter Sarah Spirit and her six children — aged 11 down to Alanna, born in June 2014 — and then killed himself after calling 911 to report what he had done. Thirteen years earlier, he had accidentally shot his 8-year-old son Kyle on a 2001 hunting trip, served about three years as a felon in possession of a firearm, and was released in 2006. No motive for the 2014 killings has ever been determined, no Netflix documentary about the case has been confirmed, and the investigation ended with Spirit’s death.