A manhunt is underway in Alabama after sheriffs discovered the “brutal scene” of a quadruple homicide, including a mother, young son, teen daughter, and an unborn grandchild.
(Video Credit: WALA-TV)
Concerned family members had their worst fears realized in Wilmer, Alabama, early Monday morning when sheriffs were prompted to check on the eight-month pregnant 17-year-old Keziah Arionna Luker. It was there that they discovered the girl had been fatally shot along with her 46-year-old mother and 12-year-old brother, who’d each had their throats cut.
“It was a brutal scene. If you’ve got beef with an adult … there’s nothing worth killing over, but to murder two children brutally … I hope and feel comfortable we’ll have this animal or animals off the streets soon,” said Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch during a press conference.
According to the sheriff’s office, the father of Luker’s unborn baby, who was working offshore, grew concerned when he saw her phone moving on a tracking app, but she was not responding to calls. Upon arriving at the scene, authorities found the victims bound and the home torn apart as though the suspect or suspects were looking for something.
Mother Lisa Gail Fields was said to have been stabbed while her son, Thomas Cordelle Jr., was said to have had his throat cut to the point he was nearly decapitated. Also at the scene was Luker’s 18-month-old daughter, who was discovered unharmed.
“At this point, we don’t suspect any kind of domestic or family-type situation,” said Burch, who believed multiple suspects were responsible. “It tells me that they had a plan coming in to bring zip ties or flex cuffs with them, so they had a plan.”
It remains to be determined if the DA’s office will seek the death penalty when charges are filed, as District Attorney Keith Blackwood told WALA-TV that, just as to whether or not they seek three or four murder charges, what charges they pursue will be dependent on the investigation’s findings.
“There are several ways the charges could go as far as capital murder. There are two victims under the age of 14, that’ll be a potential charge depending on what the investigation shows,” he said. “If there was a burglary for the purpose of committing murder, then that could be a charge as well. There’s in the presence of a child.”
While the baby girl is being cared for by family, Luker’s father told the outlet, “It’s a senseless murder. She was a bubble of sunshine. A person that makes you smile; a person that’ll make you laugh whenever you’re down. She had empathy for everybody. She loved her brothers; she loved her mom; she loved all of us.”
He also relayed that she had just received her GED, “My baby, she just wanted to be somebody. She wanted to be a good mother and a good sister to her brothers, and I mean, my God, for nothing.”
“We lost half of our family for nothing.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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