Investigators said 4 people were shot to death in Tennessee and they have been found in a car near a former Tennessee mountain resort, Fox News reported Thursday.
The 4 people shot comprised a woman and three teenage boys, and their bodies were in a car found near an abandoned guard shack at a resort community about 50 miles west of Knoxville on Thursday, State Bureau of Investigation Spokeswoman Kristin Helm said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the victims on Friday as 22-year-old Danielle Jacobson, 16-year-old John Lajeunesse, and two 17-year-olds, Steven Presley and Dominic Davis.
The Renegade Mountain Resort was built in 1969. It had a lounge, lodge, restaurant, and ski slope, but the lodge burned down in 2000. The area is large, wooded and somehow distant with 43 full-time residents.
The Epoch Times reported that the former resort had controlled access with a gate until 2010, when the new owners of the resort had decided to get rid of it. That move reportedly left some residents concerned about the security in the 3,000-acre community.
Homeowners Association President John More said a resident found the four shot bodies on his way to work, after noticing a car that was about 100 feet off a main road.
Meanwhile, UPI reported that a 26-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of the four people.
Authorities said Jacob Allen Bennett is suspected of killing the four and leaving their bodies in the said resort. However, Bennett was reportedly arrested on an unrelated charge Thursday night but he was being considered a suspect ever since the investigation has begun.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn said, the community "can rest assured that we believe that we have this person that committed these crimes in custody."
Officials said the killings were deliberate but it was too early for them to release the details on the incident and whether the killing was related to drugs.
Deputy District Attorney Gary McKenzie said the investigators believed the four victims were shot to death within 24 hours upon their discovery at around 7 a.m.
No details on how the suspect and the victims were related, but police said the victims were current or former students in the local school district and that this may mean something to the case.
"There's a lot of emotion that goes into this case just simply based on the age of these children," Chief Investigator for the Sheriff's Department Casey Cox said.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
