UPDATE on #Alabama massacre: Derrick Dearman abducted estranged girlfriend killing relatives

Derrick Dearman via Facebook

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.

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