Updated: 11.14 pm
POLICE RESPONDING TO a silent 911 call found five people stabbed to death at a well-kept family home in the suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma overnight.
Investigators stepped gingerly around a pool of blood near the front of the home this morning, while other officers erected tarps to shield the home from neighbours and local media.
Broken Arrow Police Sergeant Thomas Cooper said nine people were linked to the family home — the five dead, which included adults and children, a 13-year-old girl who suffered stab wounds, and a toddler.
The 13-year-old was in serious but stable condition, while the two-year-old girl is now in the custody of the state, and was physically unharmed.
Some time after the discovery of the bodies, police dogs tracked down two young men – also family members – in nearby woods.
The 16- and 18-year-olds are now in in custody.
Earlier, Broken Arrow police Corporal Leon Calhoun said they were struggling to notify next of kin because so many relatives were involved, in one way or another.
However, later this evening, police named the two adults as David and April Bever, aged 52 and 44 respectively.
In a statement, they said they were not yet identifying any juveniles involved in the case, which confirms that three children were among those killed.
They also stated that Robert Bever is the 18-year-old who has been arrested, and released this mugshot of him.
The police statement also confirmed that the suspects and victims are related, but did not say what that relationship is.
“I’ve been here 19 years and I don’t know if we’ve had more than three homicides in a year. I don’t think we’ve had a single incident of this magnitude,” said Calhoun.
Officers arrived before midnight last night (6am Irish time) at the house near the Arkansas River, after they received an “open 911 call” — where no one speaks but the line remains connected.
Police traced the number to the home and found a scene so disturbing that officers warned that it could take all day Thursday to process evidence.
“It certainly is shocking. I’m shocked,” said Patricia Statham, a neighbour.
I feel so bad for everyone who walks into that house. You can see it in the faces of the officers when they come out.
The home is in a well-established, upper-middle-class neighbourhood surrounded on three sides by a country club.
Tax records show it is among the largest and most expensive homes on the road.
Helen Hoagland, who has lived in the area for 42 years, said she would sometimes see the mother walking in the neighborhood with several children, whom she described as home schooled and kept on a tight leash.
Hoagland said the children used to help decorate the neighborhood’s entrance each Christmas, but that they stopped taking part a few years ago.
“Whenever I’d see the children with the mom, they always seemed OK,” she said.
I saw them outside playing. I’d see the boys out mowing the lawn.
We just have a great neighborhood. That’s just crazy; it’s absolutely crazy.
Contains reporting by Associated Press.
Originally published: 8.35 pm
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