The Other McCain

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Seven Killed in ‘Cold-Blooded’ Murder

Posted on | June 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Seven Killed in ‘Cold-Blooded’ Murder

 

Valhermoso Springs is an Alabama town in Morgan County about 20 miles south of Hunstsville. Last week, this quiet rural community was the scene of a horrific murder in which seven people were shot to death:

Seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a residence in Morgan County late Thursday.
The shooting took place at a home on the 500 block of Talucah Road in Valhermoso Springs close to Somerville at a little before 11:30 p.m., according to the Morgan County Sheriff’s office. . . .
The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office identified six of the victims: Tammy England Muzzey, 45, and 21-year-old Emily Brooke Payne, both of Valhermoso Springs; Roger Lee Jones Jr., 19, of Decatur; a 17-year-old juvenile girl; 31-year-old Jeramy Wade Roberts of Athens; and 18-year-old William Zane Hodgin of Somerville. A black male victim has yet to be identified.
Deputies said there are two white men, two black men and three white women. . . .
Upon arrival at the residence Thursday night, at 11:23, deputies saw part of the home was on fire and later discovered seven bodies inside after the fire was extinguished.
“It is a horrific scene and to be able to process it will take some time,” MCSO’s public information officer Mike Swafford told a local TV news station. . . .
Swafford told AL.com that investigators believe the suspect went to the residence with the intention of shooting everyone there.
Some victims had multiple gunshot wounds, Swafford said. Authorities are still working to identify all of the victims, but Swafford said some lived at the house where the shootings occurred.
“Incredibly heinous, talking cold-blooded,” Swafford said in describing the homicides.

The seventh victim was later identified as James Wayne Benford, 22, and the Daily Mail reported that the 17-year-old female was Dakota Green. It appears that this mass murder was drug-related:

Authorities and neighbors say the shooting deaths in a Valhermoso Springs house could be drug-related, but authorities have been tight-lipped about specific details because of the ongoing investigation. . . .
Payne’s mother, Vanessa Hipp of Madison, fought back tears at the crime scene Friday morning.
“I can’t put how I feel in words,” she said. “We suffered a great loss today.”
Wanda Thompson of Somerville, the mother of Muzzey, said she was in shock.
“I’m lost. I can’t even cry,” she said. . . .
Swafford said sheriff’s deputies are familiar with the residence. He said deputies have responded to six calls at the location during 2020, including three drug overdoses.
He said in past years, calls to the residence have involved drugs, robbery, trespassing and disturbances.
“It’s incredibly heinous (as a crime scene),” he said. “Our theory right now is whoever did this, came in here for a reason, did it and left.”
He said investigators are not ruling out that more than one shooter committed the crime. . . .
Some neighbors said they hear gunshots along the street on a regular basis.
“A barn behind that house burned down a few years ago because somebody was cooking meth there,” said Lawrence Lang, who has lived a few houses to the south of the crime scene for the past 21 years. “I don’t associate with those people.”
Thompson said she was having “problems with the people” at her daughter’s house, which was where the shooting occurred.
“People we didn’t even know were hanging around,” Thompson said. “I ran people off several weeks in a row. … Somebody was angry when they killed them.”
Another neighbor, Dennis Romback, said he observed traffic to and from the house at all hours. “(The shootings) are most likely drug-related. Overall, this is a quiet neighborhood. If authorities come around here, it’s usually to that house.”

Seven people dead and nothing on national news. You’re not going to see coverage on CNN. It’s as if the only time they consider murder to be newsworthy is when they can exploit it for politics.


 

 

Category: Alabama, Crime

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