MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (TCN) — Authorities are searching for a suspect after a mother and her two children were found dead in their home, bound with zip ties.
At around 2:30 a.m. on April 20, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home after receiving a request to perform a welfare check, WMBB reports. The boyfriend of 17-year-old Keziah Arionna Luker became concerned when he saw his girlfriend’s phone start moving on the Life360 tracking app, but he could not reach her. Worried, he called his father and asked him to check on the family.
When his father arrived, he found the bodies of 46-year-old Lisa Gail Fields; her son, Thomas Cordelle Jr., 12; and Luker, who was about eight months pregnant. Fields’ throat had been slit and she was stabbed, Cordelle’s throat had been cut nearly to the point of decapitation, and Luker had been shot. There was an 18-month-old child in the home who was unharmed; AL.com reports that the child is Luker’s. The father then called the police.
Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said authorities responding to the scene noted that the family’s home was in disarray. According to WMBB, Burch believes it was a targeted attack and that it is possible that more than one suspect is responsible; all three victims were in different rooms, per Law & Crime.
At a press conference, Burch said, “They had a plan coming in to bring zip ties with them,” Law & Crime reports. “To murder two children brutally, the 12-year-old was almost decapitated, and so it was a brutal scene, and you know, I hope and feel comfortable we’ll have this animal or animals off the streets soon.” Burch said he does not believe the killings were related to a domestic incident.
WALA reports that according to a friend, Mandi Evans, she and Fields owned a lawn care business together. Evans said Cordelle was sweet, loving, and kind, and that Luker was a great mother. “She took on that role like a boss,” WALA reports Evans said.
The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office will determine if the suspect, once apprehended, will face four murder charges since Luker was pregnant, per WMBB.
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