Police: Pair arrested in slayings of six
(CNN) — A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the deaths of six people — believed to be three generations of the same family — in a rural area outside Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday, authorities said.
The pair, who are in their late 20s, were being taken to the King County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday evening, deputies told CNN.
The Christmas Eve killings apparently took place at a house in Carnation, about 20 miles east of Seattle.
The pair have not confessed to the deaths and do not yet have access to lawyers, King County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said about 7:40 p.m. ET.
This couple was among the people that showed up at the [crime] scene, Urquhart said. And as we got to talking to them, we developed probable cause and made the arrests.
The couple is expected to be charged with six counts of first-degree homicide, he said.
Urquhart said that the suspects knew the victims and that investigators have not yet determined a motive for the killings.
The victims were a man and a woman in their 50s, another man and woman in their 30s, and two children: a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.
They are believed to be three generations of the same family, and they appeared to have been shot sometime Monday, Urquhart said.
The bodies were found in and around the house, which is on a residential property in Carnation, Urquhart said. The house sits among a cluster of residences and is at the end of a long dirt road on the edge of woods.
A colleague of one of the victims came by to check on the family Wednesday morning after one of the victims didn’t show up for work, King County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Laing said.
The colleague called deputies, who initially found the bodies of two adults and a child inside a house on the property.
A subsequent search revealed the other bodies.
Authorities earlier ruled out murder-suicide in the deaths. E-mail to a friend
