Florida, July 11: Art Family A mother and father to 16 children have been shot dead in a home invasion/robbery in Escambia County, Florida.
Escambia Sheriff’s Office say the couple, identified by a relative as Byrd and Melanie Billings, were killed just before 8pm Thursday at a house on Mobile Highway in the Beulah Community, about 17 miles northwest of Pensacola, on the Alabama/Florida state line.
A relative of one of those killed said the Billings’ had 16 children, 12 of them adopted, ranging from an infant to 11-years-old.
Escambia County Police spokesman Sergeant Ted Roy said one of the parents was shot in the head and that eight of the children were in the house at the time of the murders but had not been physically harmed.
The couple owned several local businesses and had been featured in the News Journal for their generosity taking in children with disabilities and from troubled backgrounds.
The mother-in-law of one of the grown children, Nancy Markham, said the Billings’ were found shot dead in the bedroom of their home.
“They were very good people. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those children,” she said.
Authorities are searching for three men in a red van who may have been involved in the slayings, and also examining surveillance tapes from the home.
–Agencies–