5 Ill. Family Members Slain
Host Neil Patrick Harris performs at the 66th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday June 10, 2012, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes /Invision/AP) / Charles Sykes
Updated 1:48 p.m. Eastern
Five family members, including a couple and three children, were found slain in their home, and detectives were trying to identify possible suspects, authorities said Tuesday.
Authorities discovered the bodies late Monday afternoon after responding to a 911 call about possible shots fired at the address, Logan County Sheriff Steven Nichols said at a news conference.
A 3-year-old girl survived the attack and was taken to a hospital in Peoria, he said.
Nichols declined to say why his office didn't release information about the slayings until Tuesday morning. He said detectives were following leads to try to identify a suspect, but that authorities could only say that the suspect was considered "armed and dangerous."
CBS News affiliate WCIA in Champaign reported Tuesday that police advised area residents to keep their doors locked.
"We are determined to identify and arrest those responsible," Nichols said.
The slayings occurred at the family's ranch-style home in Beason, a farming community about 140 miles southwest of Chicago.
Nichols would not provide details about the crime scene or the suspected cause of death, but said an autopsy was scheduled for later Tuesday.
Nichols identified the victims and gave approximate ages: Raymond "Rick" Gee,46; Ruth Gee, 39; Justina Constant, 16, Dillen Constant, 14; and Austin Gee, 11.
He did not immediately provide details about the girl who survived.
Others in this tiny community described the family as quiet and well-liked.
Postmaster Jodie Duncan said she saw the children every morning when they came to the post office to get on the buses that took them to school.
"They were great kids," she said. "Austin was in the post office every morning in the lobby on the floor doing his homework. He'd say he's more awake in the morning."
She said Raymond Gee worked in construction and that Ruth Gee was a stay-at-home mother.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Five family members, including a couple and three children, were found slain in their home, and detectives were trying to identify possible suspects, authorities said Tuesday.
Authorities discovered the bodies late Monday afternoon after responding to a 911 call about possible shots fired at the address, Logan County Sheriff Steven Nichols said at a news conference.
A 3-year-old girl survived the attack and was taken to a hospital in Peoria, he said.
Nichols declined to say why his office didn't release information about the slayings until Tuesday morning. He said detectives were following leads to try to identify a suspect, but that authorities could only say that the suspect was considered "armed and dangerous."
CBS News affiliate WCIA in Champaign reported Tuesday that police advised area residents to keep their doors locked.
"We are determined to identify and arrest those responsible," Nichols said.
The slayings occurred at the family's ranch-style home in Beason, a farming community about 140 miles southwest of Chicago.
Nichols would not provide details about the crime scene or the suspected cause of death, but said an autopsy was scheduled for later Tuesday.
Nichols identified the victims and gave approximate ages: Raymond "Rick" Gee,46; Ruth Gee, 39; Justina Constant, 16, Dillen Constant, 14; and Austin Gee, 11.
He did not immediately provide details about the girl who survived.
Others in this tiny community described the family as quiet and well-liked.
Postmaster Jodie Duncan said she saw the children every morning when they came to the post office to get on the buses that took them to school.
"They were great kids," she said. "Austin was in the post office every morning in the lobby on the floor doing his homework. He'd say he's more awake in the morning."
She said Raymond Gee worked in construction and that Ruth Gee was a stay-at-home mother.
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No body deserves this and my heart is truly breaking over this. I did not know the husband or the kids, but I knew Ruth 20 or so years ago.
Lets quit blaming, and start Praying for the family.
That is complete BS. It is absolutely NOT what the DOJ tells anybody. You LIARS like to brag about how you "waved yer gun around and skared the varmint off". You are delusional.
If someone wanted to kill you, dan, certainly he/she would first determine whether or not you were "armed". Since you carry a murder weapon with you all the time, and you are eager to shoot, the person wanting to kill you would NOT stand in front of you and announce their intention to attack, waiting for you to fire first. No. They would just attack without warning. If you've got a gun, they'll get an Uzi. If you've got an Uzi, they use a rocket launcher, etc.
There is NO POSSIBLE DEFENSE against a reasonably intelligent person with the desire and intent to kill you. As with war, the ONLY winning move is not to play the game. By owning a gun, by remaining paranoid, by seeing "danger" everywhere, you are "in the game". It ALWAYS ends badly.
Christ. It's like Mad Ad-libs here in the good ol' child murdering USA. You just fill in the blank with a state of the union.
Apparently vitally important for these psychopaths as always to take out the children. And of course, it is ALWAYS much easier to kill people with a gun -- there is no other purpose for a gun than to kill and kill quickly and in rapid succession if necessary. Why buy a gun if a knife will suffice? It takes considerably more strategy and/or strength and agility to kill five people like this without a gun and without alerted survivors escaping. How freaking clueless do you have to be?
"Killers definitely prefer defenseless victims."
And, apparently, guns prefer to kill their owners, because the NUMBER ONE fatalily by gun owners is SUICIDE, not "self defense". It's as if the guns are whispering to you, "I am so depressed. Nobody likes me. I have to end all my problems now. I'll feel much better after I eat this bullet... BANG!"
These are all the same people. They look for a reason to kill, and guns or exotic weaponry are part of this disturbing repression brought on by some apparently really goading and disgusted or shamed parents or some other severe bizzare childhood experience.
by schoollord
Criminals are a nuisance to our society. Did you read about the other families killed today? No guns involved. But you see the guns as the problem, not the people.