Inset left: Austin Fisher (Jacksonville Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Edwin Barber and Savanna Barber (GoFundMe). Background: A section of Exodus Way in Jacksonville, Florida (Google Maps).
A knock on a Florida man’s door led law enforcement to the gruesome discovery of three people who had been fatally stabbed, authorities say.
Austin Fisher, 30, is charged with the murders of 27-year-old Savannah Barber, 49-year-old Edwin Barber, and 37-year-old Shad Cole, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday. The defendant was arrested and taken into custody this week.
On Thursday, a man called the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center and said “a man was knocking on his front door.” Patrol officers arrived at the location to a harrowing sight.
“They found 49-year-old Edwin Barber on the front porch with a stab wound to his chest,” the sheriff’s office said. “We learned Barber had been stabbed at his home down the street and ran to his neighbor’s house for help.”
When officers went to the victim’s house, they found Savannah Barber “inside a bedroom with multiple stab wounds.” And as they searched the neighborhood, deputies located Cole “with multiple stab wounds on the porch of another house.”
Savannah Barber and Cole were both pronounced dead “before they could receive medical attention.” Edwin Barber was brought to a hospital, where he later died.
“She did not deserve this, or my husband, or even Shad, any of them,” Amy Barber, Savannah Barber’s mom and Edwin Barber’s wife, told local CBS affiliate WJAX. “I was told that the original argument started over $600 that was supposedly missing.”
The woman said Fisher lived in the back shed of her husband’s property. She also reportedly said she learned Fisher waited until everyone was sleep to stab them.
“After he did what he did, Savannah was still alive,” Amy Barber added. “He went back and he would not leave no witnesses. That’s why he killed her because he didn’t want no witnesses left.”
She alleged that Fisher then paid somebody $100 to call Uber for him and “told that person what he’d did. Told the Uber driver what he did.”
The sheriff’s office did not give a possible motive for the stabbings. Deputies did say that, with help from community residents, they identified Fisher as their suspect and learned he was hiding at a nearby motel.
The defendant is now behind bars without bond.
