Man charged with killing six family members
A man has been charged today with killing six members of his family, whose bodies were found bludgeoned to death in a home in Pennsylvania.
Police checking on the home discovered the gruesome scene: the bodies of six people, some wrapped in blankets in the basement, and blood, bone fragments and a hammer upstairs, authorities said.
Jesse Dee Wise, 21, whose grandfather owned the home, was charged with six counts of homicide, police said.
The victims died of multiple traumatic injuries, police said.
Police said they were still trying to sort out the victims’ relations to the suspect.
The victims were Wise’s 64-year-old grandmother, Emily Wise; two women believed to be the suspect’s aunts; two of Emily Wise’s grandchildren, ages 5 and 19; and a 17-year-old relative, Jesse James Wise, authorities said.
They were killed last weekend, said Lancaster County District Attorney Don Totaro.
Police initially reported discovering bodies in the home after a friend of the homeowner called emergency officials yesterday afternoon saying the owner had called concerned about his family.
The three-storey, white house with a green roof and shutters is on Main Street in Leola, a small village in rural Amish country.
A neighbour, Janet Detwiler, 44, said she noticed a white car coming and going in the past week and that she thought it belonged to someone who lived there.
The friend who came to check on the home, John Sean Adams, 24, went there yesterday afternoon at the request of the homeowner, Jessie Wise, 60.
Wise, who was out of town, had called Adams and asked him to look in on his family, including his wife, Emily, because he had not heard from them since Friday, police said.
Police Officer Samuel Sanger met Adams at the home. Adams then went into the basement, stopped halfway down the steps and turned back and yelled: “They’re all dead! All six of them are dead!” the affidavit stated.
Sanger proceeded to the basement and discovered three bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets and piled on the floor, one of them with obvious head wounds. He found a fourth body at the bottom of the steps wrapped in a comforter secured with a phone cord, the affidavit stated.
It is unclear where the other two bodies were found.
Police later found dark marks that looked like blood on the walls and ceiling of two bedrooms.
According to the search warrant, police were searching for fingerprints, weapons, a hammer and phone cord, as well as anything wrapped around the victim’s necks.
They were also seeking personal effects and financial information related to the victims.
