Parents of 16 Murdered in Cold Blood

Police Searching for Red Van Killers May Have Used; Fla. Couple Adopted Special Needs Kids

(CBS/AP)  Investigators are asking the public to be on the lookout for a red van they believe carried three men involved in the deaths of a Florida Panhandle couple who were shot in their rural home while eight of their 16 children slept.

Surveillance cameras showed the van at the home of Byrd and Melanie Billings in Beulah, a rural area west of Pensacola near the Alabama border, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. The children were unharmed.

The sheriff's office released an enhanced, but still grainy photograph of a red, 15-passenger van dating to the late 70s or early 80s.

Morgan said investigators didn't know who killed the wealthy couple known for adopting children with developmental disabilities, many born to drug-addicted mothers.

"That only adds to the hatefulness and senselessness of this act," Morgan told reporters. "And I can tell you that our community has an outpouring as I speak for the deaths of these two individuals."

"Byrd and Melanie Billings, I believe, exemplified what is good and decent in society," he added.

Karla Arnold, who manages a convenience store near the billings' home, remarked to Pat Peterson of CBS affiliate WKRG in Pensacola, Fla. that, "They were just the type of people, they didn't lock their doors, they would help anybody."

Arnold, who used to work for the Billings, also wondered aloud, "Who could do something like that with all the children around?"

Detectives have questioned several people they consider persons of interest in the double murder, Peterson reports.

Morgan said eight of the children, ages 8 to 14, were in the home when the couple was killed Thursday evening. A woman who lives in an outlying building and helps care for the children called emergency dispatchers from the home.

Deputies had to wake some of the children after they arrived, authorities said.

Investigators interviewed the children, who are now staying with other family members, Morgan said.

The Billings had 16 children, 12 of them adopted. They married 18 years ago and each had two children from previous marriages. The couple then began adopting children with developmental disabilities and other problems.

The couple owned several local businesses, including a finance company and a used car dealership.

In a 2005 story in the Pensacola News Journal, the couple said they wanted to share their wealth with children in need, but didn't imagine their family would grow so large.

"It just happened," Melanie Byrd told the newspaper. "I just wanted to give them a better life."

[windsng]

I hope that law enforcement catches all of the killers involved. What a terrible, senseless murder of two people who were making a difference for children.

I cannot believe the evil that lives in this world.

[sam-kiley]

bonjour
triste histoire, oser tuer avec sang froid c'est horrible,a croire que la sécurité a fui la planéte.. j'espére que les mis en cause seront arrétés a temps...
pauvre enfants aussi..au revoir

[jankebenzone]

Just another murder in a never ending slaughter of inocents by a never ending bunch of spineless,gutless,heartless and above all, useless misfits that society would be so much better off without. When will we learn?

[Dadgumgerman]

This world is dwindling down as violence gets closer and closer to enveloping every aspect of daily life. Is there no peace left, anywhere? The whole population needs a rennaisance of respect and humility for one another's space. Violence casts an eerie shadow on humanity's horizon.

[rhs648]

You are correct. My younger son worked at a theme park in Japan and was paid every two weeks in cash. Employees would enter a room and look for an envelope with their names on it. I could not believe that all of this cash was in a room where people walk in and out all day and there were no problems. What a difference in cultures.

[fervan-2009]

Here's a good family, helping other children, and some monsters did this. This is the worse. Since they were wealthy, I assume the scumbags, from hell, robbed them.

[carolhill814]

This seems like a hit to me it was organized there is more to this then meets the eye.

It just seems that the people knew more than they should have it was done quickly and they left it just sounds like a hit.

[barbaram99]

People need to feel safe in their home. People do not have the right to break in other people's home and do this. Locking the doors and windows helps. Most folks leave their window open at night. I don't. Windows and doors are locked. We are not listed in the phonebook.
Most people in small towns know each other and I grew up in small towns. People are most at ease there. I am a sp needs person and as older person I have to be on top of them scams. I live in the city. People in small towns are trushing more so than city people. Older people are more so. The killers should be found and dealt with. The cops will find them and they will go to prisom. I do not understand the mind of killers..They are EVIL.

[ICStoopidPeople]

To take a life that is not yours is bad karma to begin with. Only one person determines your fate. To take someone who does only good is even worse. God Bless the children that were unharmed and hoping they will be placed in the arms of another loving family if not together with someone much like the Billings. I know they are with Our Lord, Our Saviour, ~

To those heartless heathens who did this senseless deed, You can run, you can attempt to hide, there will be NO mercy on your soul...

[docpeter1953]

It is really sick individuals that would kill a couple taking care of 16 special needs kids.

The individual(s) involved in this senseless killing deserve the complete wrath of "punishment".

God Bless the "parents" souls and bless all the lives ruined by this senseless act.

[barbaram99]

Lock yer doors. Hope they find the persons who robbed those children of their parents. I had to tell my mother in her 70s to lock her door as she was used to leaving it unlocked. There was a day a person could. Today I say no way.
The article said the caregivers were killt in cold blood and when the men are found and they will get mercy. The parents did not get mercy. This is appalling.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

As much as I understand what you are saying, locking your doors isn't going to stop someone. If they want to get in, they will get in.