Sheriff: 5 Slain in Alabama Massacre Included Pregnant Woman

Ambulances wait along Jim Platt Road west of Citronelle, Ala., joining a stream of law enforcement vehicles at the scene of multiple homicides on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The suspect in the killing of multiple people at a home in Alabama attacked them while they slept and then abducted his estranged girlfriend and an infant, both of whom were found alive, authorities said Sunday. Lawrence Specker/AL.com via AP

ATLANTA—The five people slain in a massacre at a south Alabama home included a woman who was five months pregnant, Mobile County authorities said.

The suspect, Derrick Dearman, attacked them as they slept and then abducted his estranged girlfriend, Laneta Lester, and an infant from the home, a sheriff’s captain said. Both of them were found alive.

Dearman, 27, of Leakesville, Mississippi, will be charged with six counts of capital murder, Mobile County sheriff’s spokeswoman Lori Myles said Sunday. Five counts stem from the killing of Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; and Robert Lee Brown, also 26. The additional count is because 22-year-old Chelsea Marie Reed, was 5 months pregnant, Myles said.

The bodies were found Saturday afternoon inside the home in Citronelle, a small town 30 miles northwest of Mobile.

The crime was of a magnitude rarely if ever seen in this corner of rural, southern Alabama, Mobile County sheriff’s Capt. Paul Burch said.

“It’s unprecedented here,” Burch told The Associated Press.

Crime scene tape marks the home on Jim Platt Road near Citronelle, Ala., Aug. 21, 2016, where authorities said five people were killed on Saturday. John Sharp/AL.com via AP