Due to the horrific nature of the killings, the FBI were called in to assist with the investigation and specialist crime scene investigators will be on site for days.
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Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told Al.com (http://bit.ly/2bd4hvO ) that the crime scene where five people were “brutally and viciously murdered” was the worst she’d seen in 20 years as a prosecutor. The man, Derrick Dearman, allegedly used multiple weapons, including a machete, in the mass killing spree.
Derrick Ryan Dearman, 27, turned himself to police in his home state of Mississippi Saturday, hours after he entered the home where his girlfriend was staying with relatives and attacked the people sleeping inside using “firearms and several other weapons”, according to a statement from the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office. He allegedly drove to his father’s house in MS, only to let them go and report himself to the police.
Derrick Dearman, a man from across the state line in MS has turned himself in and been arrested for the crime, which the FBI is investigating due to its horrific nature.
“He’s been cooperative”, Burch told AP on Sunday.
Burch said he expects Dearman to be charged with “five or six counts of capital murder”.
Also slain were 35-year-old Shannon Melissa Randall; 26-year-old Robert Lee Brown; 23-year-old Justin Kaleb Reed; and 26-year-old Joseph Adam Turner. Burch said it was his understanding that during the call Dearman had been identified as the trespasser. He and his father went to the Greene County Sheriff’s Department to surrender. Dearman, who is said to have let his girlfriend and an infant survive, is in the process of being extradited from MS to Alabama.
The captain said he understood that Citronelle police responded to the call, but found no one.
Investigators believe that the woman had a relationship with Dearman, Burch said. After the killings, Dearman forced Lester and the 3-month-old infant the child of the one of the murder victims into a vehicle at the residence. The three drove to the MS home of Dearman’s father.
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After they arrived there, Dearman released Lester and the infant and then turned himself in at the MS sheriff’s department, Burch said. “The victims” names have not been released as notifications of family members are still ongoing.
