FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. — Police say a weekend rampage that left six people dead in two states began with a fatal beating in Alabama.
Sgt. Mark Roberts with the Huntsville, Ala., police department said Monday that the first victim was 50-year-old Sidney Wade Dempsey, who worked at Hall Cultured Marble Granite. Roberts says he was an acquaintance of the man charged with the killings, 30-year-old Jacob Shaffer.
Roberts says Dempsey appears to have died from blunt-force trauma.
Shaffer was arraigned Monday in Fayetteville, Tenn., where five of the victims were found Saturday.
Shaffer is also charged with killing his 38-year-old wife, Traci Shaffer, her father, brother, teenage son and a neighbor.
A family friend said Shaffer had been separated from his wife.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A family friend said he'd seen fights between a slain southern Tennessee woman and the estranged husband accused of killing her and five other people.
Jason Shaffer, 30, is charged with six counts of homicide in the deaths of his 38-year-old wife, Traci Shaffer, her father, brother, teenage son and a neighbor in rural Fayetteville. He also is charged with a killing in Huntsville, Ala., some 30 miles south.
"As far as seeing him do something like this, you just can't see it," family friend James Wilson told The Associated Press Sunday. He said the Shaffers had "gotten into it" before as far as fighting, but he never expected such violence.
Wilson said he's the boyfriend of Traci Shaffer's sister, Jennifer, who is devastated by the loss of her family.
"She's not handling it and I can't blame her," he said. "What can you say to someone who has lost everybody?"
Traci Shaffer, her son, Devin Brooks, and neighbor, Robert Berber, both 16, were found dead Saturday in her home in rural Fayetteville, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm. The bodies of Traci Shaffer's brother, Chris Hall, 34, and father Billy Hall, 57, were found in a home across the road.
The sixth victim was found at Hall Cultured Marble Granite in Huntsville. Wilson said Hall's family owns the business. Police named the victim as Sidney Wade Dempsey, 50, a worker and acquaintance of Shaffer's who was living at the business, the Elk Valley Times in Fayetteville reported. A Huntsville police dispatcher told The Associated Press on Monday she could not release any information.
The Shaffers were no longer sharing a home but had not filed for separation, said the 29-year-old Wilson, who was gathering belongings from Traci's house in Lincoln County.
The couple had a 4-year-old daughter, and Wilson said police told him the girl was home during the killings but wasn't hurt. Wilson said he met Jacob Shaffer when they were installing drywall, but they had stopped being friends about a year and a half ago.
Shaffer was still installing drywall around Huntsville, and Billy Hall had been driving him back and forth to work before the couple split, Wilson said.
"Her dad done everything he could for Jacob," Wilson said. "I have no idea why he walked across the street to her daddy and her brother. Her daddy never done anything wrong."
Helm said Jason Shaffer's motive was domestic, but authorities have not released a chronology of the killings or many details, including how the six died.
Traci's slain son and a 9-year-old daughter, who wasn't home during the killings, were from a previous relationship, Wilson said. Her sister was trying to figure out how to pay for her family's funeral, he said.
Jacob Shaffer of Fayetteville was being held without bond at the Lincoln County Jail and no lawyer for him was listed.
Lincoln County Sheriff Murray Blackwelder said Saturday that his department was investigating three crime scenes and would not confirm the causes of death in what he called "horrendous" killings. Autopsies were performed Sunday but no results were released. Wilson said police wouldn't tell him how the family was killed.
Helm said the family died Friday night or early Saturday and that Jacob Shaffer was sitting on the porch of one of the houses when authorities first arrived. Huntsville police said information from him led them to the body at the granite business. They have not released the name of the sixth victim.
Fayetteville is a town of 7,000 people about 90 miles south of Nashville near the Tennessee-Alabama border.
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. — A man accused of fatally stabbing and bludgeoning six people in Tennessee and Alabama was targeting his wife and first killed her father and brother so they couldn't stop him, authorities said Tuesday.
Jacob Shaffer, 30, is charged with six counts of homicide. He bought two stun guns Friday, the day before the victims were found, indicating the attacks were planned, District Attorney Charles Crawford said at news conference.
Lincoln County Sheriff Murray Blackwelder said officers found out about the crimes after Shaffer called 911. He was still on the front porch of his wife's duplex when deputies arrived and found five people dead in the two neighboring rural homes in Fayetteville. Shaffer started the killings by beating a man to death at a business about 30 miles away in Huntsville, Ala., police say.
Investigators believe 38-year-old Traci Shaffer was the last person to die, and the couple had been having marital difficulties, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm said. Shaffer "went out of his way" to kill Traci's father, Billy Hall, 57, and brother, Chris Hall, 34, in their home across the street.
"He wanted to make sure the father and the brother who were in close proximity wouldn't interfere with him killing his main target," Helm said.
Helm said investigators think Shaffer then went to the duplex and killed his stepson, Devin Brooks, and a neighbor, Robert Berber, both 16, before killing his wife. He used large kitchen knives, apparently from the Hall house, said Blackwelder, who did not know the time of the deaths.
Investigators said they weren't sure if the stun guns were used, but Crawford said their purchase and other evidence point to premeditated killings and not someone "snapping."
The only person left unharmed in the homes was Traci and Jacob Shaffer's 4-year-old daughter, Helm said.
Lincoln County investigator Joyce McConnell said the girl "has made some statements to indicate she was present at some point" during the killings. She and Blackwelder declined to elaborate.
Helm said investigators were still trying to figure out the motive in the death of the first victim, 50-year-old Sidney Wade Dempsey, who was found at Huntsville's Hall Cultured Marble Granite, where he worked and was allowed to live. Unlike the stabbings in Tennessee, Hall died of blunt-force trauma, police said. A family friend said the business belongs to Traci Hall's family.
McConnell said Dempsey and Shaffer were apparently acquaintances.
"I think the guy (Dempsey) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the guy (Shaffer) just decided to start there," said Huntsville police Sgt. Mark Roberts.
Helm said Shaffer made a statement to investigators, but she would not say if he confessed. Blackwelder said Shaffer made some "unsolicited remarks" on the porch that led the deputy to look inside, discover the bodies and arrest him. He said Shaffer's remark was "not a confession."
"It's a pretty solid case for us," Helm said. "We've got everything we need to prosecute him."
Crawford said a decision on seeking the death penalty would be made later.
A funeral was set Wednesday for Berber. His family moved to Tennessee from Texas about a year ago and his parents have not spoken to the media.
Treva Richardson, a church friend of the family, said the teen had just returned from church camp, was loving, respectful and "loved the Lord."
"I don't want people to think he was a bad kid because he was at a bad place at a bad time," she said. "He was a young man who everybody would want as a son."
The other victims' remains were sent to Alabama and funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed to this story from Nashville.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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