http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/505264.html
Teenagers arrested in triple-killings on remote East Texas ranch
By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press Writer
ALBA, Texas -- A mother and two children were killed during a predawn attack on their remote East Texas ranch where police said another man was critically injured by gunshot wounds and the family's house burned to the ground.
Four people, including three high school students and one juvenile, were arrested hours later in this rural town and will be charged with three counts of capital murder each, Rains County Sheriff David Traylor said.
Tightlipped authorities provided little details, refusing to release any names or what motivated the shootings and fire. Two boys, ages 8 and 13, and a 39-year-old woman were found dead inside the home.
The father was in critical but stable condition at a nearby hospital, Traylor said. Those who knew the family say the man dragged his bloodied body to a neighbor for help after being shot.
"It's the scariest thing," Traylor said. "You don't know what to make. I guess you imagine the worst and hope for the best."
The sheriff said authorities could not determine whether gunshots or the fire caused the deaths, saying, "The bodies have been so badly burned."
Traylor would only describe the suspects as two males and two females who knew the family. All four were in the Rains County Jail. The family had a teenage daughter, but Traylor did not provide information on her whereabouts.
Traylor said a family of five lived at the house that sat on at least 20 acres of pine-canopied, remote woodland on a narrow gravel road with just two other homes.
Carl Johnson, a friend of the family, said he drove to the secluded county road early Saturday after being told of the fire. He said the father dragged his wounded body about 150 yards to a neighbor's house, leaving a bloody trail.
Johnson described the family as musicians, the boys playing guitars and harmonica and the mother piano at church. He said he'd often tell the teenage daughter that he wanted her to sing at his funeral.
"I just thought the whole world of the family," said Johnson, 75. "They were good Christian people. (The father) was like a son of my own."
Harold Read, who lives about a mile from the home, said he was awakened by what he thought was thunder around 4 a.m., the time when authorities were first called to the house.
"All you read about out here are ticky-tacky crimes in the local paper," said Read, 67. "I never lock my doors. This is a quiet place."
Alba is about 60 miles northeast of Dallas in Rains County, the second-smallest county in Texas. A neighbor who didn't want to be identified described the area as so quiet that the sheriff once told him the only crimes are deer poachers about twice a year.
By late Saturday, firefighters sifted through ash and singed metal that was all that remained from the house. A wood sign tacked to a tree in the family's dirt driveway read "Joshua 24:15," and a burned van was parked near where the home once stood.
Joshua 24:15, a verse from the Old Testament, reads in part, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
