The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office is still working to notify the family of three individuals murdered in Spearsville early Saturday morning.
Sheriff Dusty Gates said Monday that the identify of the 48-year-old Alabama man who murdered Casey Colvin, 40, daughter Billie Beaird, 18 and family friend Lela Platt, 17, has not been released.
“We’re still looking for the next of kin,” he said. “It was an argument that escalated and turned violent.”
Gates said his deputies were called out to the Spearsville home at 1:40 a.m. Saturday. They found Beaird and Platt dead, and Colvin injured and calling for help from inside of a bedroom that she had locked herself inside of.
Colvin was transported from the scene by emergency personnel but died on the way to the hospital. Beaird was found in a hallway, Gates said, and Platt inside of a bathroom. The shooter used a 12-gauge shotgun to blast his way into locked rooms before using a 30-06 rifle on himself.
“I’ve been doing this for 42 years, and this is the worse I’ve seen in quite a while,” Gates said.
Colvin’s other daughter escaped through a window and ran to a neighbor’s house and called police. All four bodies were sent to Little Rock for autopsies. Gates said the incident is still under investigation.
Spearsville is 22 miles south of El Dorado.