By Dave Andrusko
Derrick Dearman
27-year-old accused mass murderer Derrick Dearman has been officially charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping, which are first-degree felonies.
One of the Mississippi native‘s victim was a five-month unborn baby.
Someone inside the home in Citronelle, Alabama, called police and said Dearman was on the property. But in a statement, sheriff’s officials said he had left before they arrived.
Dearman returned to the home before daylight Saturday, and attacked the victims while they were sleeping, the Daily Mail reported.
The baby’s mother, 22-year-old Chelsea Marie Reed, was one of two women and three men shot by Dearman while in their beds, reporter John Sharp explained. According to Sharp
Authorities say Dearman spared Laneta Lester and an infant, who was the child of one of the female victims. He took them with him when he fled to his father’s house in Mississippi. His father evidently convinced Dearman to turn himself in, which he did in Leakesville.
Last Saturday afternoon inside a house in Citronelle, Alabama, officers discovered the bodies of the victims
Lester returned to Citronelle with the baby, alerting authorities to what had happened.
Lester had been staying at the home to avoid Dearman, who was reportedly abusing her. The two had reportedly been involved in a relationship.
The group apparently called the Citronelle Police Department to report that Dearman had previously trespassed onto the property. Two Citronelle police officers, however, could not locate Dearman after arriving to the house.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told television station WKRG that in her years as a prosecutor she had “never seen a scene where there were five people that were brutally and viciously murdered.”
Dearman blamed his actions on methamphetamine.