THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2009
CRIME
NEWS 23
Seven arrested after murder of wealthy adoptive parents of 17
Melanie and Byrd Billings were shot to death Thursday in their nine-bedroom home. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan hugged their sobbing adult daughter, Ashley Markham, at a press conference Tuesday to announce
BY BILL KACZOR AND MELISSA NELSON Associated Press
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Masked suspects, some dressed as ninjas, stole a safe and other items during a deadly break-in at the sprawling Florida Panhandle home of a couple known for adopting children with special needs, authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators had said previously that there were many motives for the crime, but prosecutor Bill Eddins said Tuesday that robbery was the main one. He would not say what was in the safe or what else might have been taken from the house.
"It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, and your family, we have found them and they are in custody," Morgan said.
Nine of the couple's 17 children were home at the time and three saw the intruders but were not hurt.
that three more people had been arrested, bringing the total to seven.
CRIME
Suspect was in and out of jail during string of rapes
JACKSON, Miss. — Police said a man accused of using a stun gun in rapes in Mississippi and Louisiana was briefly jailed but released during a week-long crime spree.
Authorities said James H. Crockett of Chalmette, La., was jailed on a drug charge in Alabama after the first two attacks but before a third attempted rape.
A profile from that arrest was sent to officers across the Southeast. Crockett was captured again near Huntsville, Ala., after a multistate manhunt and a car chase.
Associated Press
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