She posted a photo of her boyfriend with a gun. Hours later, she was dead.

Her boyfriend posed with a gun. Hours later, she was dead.

Trigger warning: This post deals with alleged domestic violence.

Mother-of-two Stephanie Hernandez posted a series of disturbing photos to Snapchat on Sunday.

In one of the images, her boyfriend Rafael Gonzalez was shown holding a gun to the young woman’s head. In another image, Hernandez pointed a gun directly at the camera while Hernandez smiled in the foreground.

A third picture showed a gun and ammo laid out on a surface.

The images are undeniably strange and creepy, but at first glance they look like a young man goofing around. At first glance, they could almost be written off as a juvenile prank.

Almost.

Except that just hours after the images were taken, Ms Hernandez was found dead by the couple’s housemate.

It appears she died of a single gunshot wound to her head.

Gonzalez, 20, was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree murder, according to police.

Hernandez’s two daughters, just three years and eight months old, were with relatives when the shooting happened.

Too young to understand the tragedy that’s befallen their family, they have been crying for their mother. Hernadez’s grieving family now faces the unthinkable task of explaining to the young children why their mum won’t be coming back.

“I haven’t told my three-year-old niece anything yet,” Hernandez’s sister Camryn Startz told KATV.

“She knows something is wrong because she wants her mom.”

The couple’s female housemate told police Gonzalez had carried a gun in their house a number of times, and that he would “routinely” stick it against Hernandez’s head while “playing around.”

Police also said they found a .45 caliber green pistol and a box of ammunition under a nearby shed.

Jaquilan Davis, an old friend of Hernandez’s who turned up the house to help pack up the young mother’s belongings, told KATV Gonzalez was “a bad influence”.

“She wouldn’t hurt nobody. Stephanie is just the coolest thing that could ever be,” Davis said.

Gonzalez — who police say has previously posted photos of a green pistol to his Facebook page — appeared in North Little Rock District Court in Arkansas on Tuesday.

He pleaded not guilty.

If you are in a domestic violence situation and need help, call 1800 RESPECT, a helpline that’s open 24/7 across Australia.