Couple who adopted 12 children shot to death #1

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I wonder if hire a Hero is involved ?It would be something if this is somehow attached to Casey Anthony wasnt there a connection to someone who was involved in a car scam? just saying

:eek: The guy linked to the Casey Anthony case was arrested and serving time somewhere around here in the Panhandle! Wasn't it in Okaloosa or Walton county?? Anyone remember?

We're prolly reaching, but as strange as things have gone in that case - you can't rule anything out. Hey...just sayin'
 
Excerpts:

~~~snipped


"Mr. Billings was well-to-do. He was an entrepreneur and he opened his home to the community. You are asking me to speculate on a motive. That could have been one reason," Morgan said, likening the killings to the 1959 slayings of a Kansas farm family that were chronicled by Truman Capote in the book "In Cold Blood."
The video from last Thursday showed three armed, masked men arriving in a red van, entering through the front of the house and then returning to the vehicle. Others dressed in what the sheriff called "ninja garb" went in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes.

~~~snipped

Byrd Billings, 68, was a man with big twinkly-eyed smile, Berry said. At one school function, his big hand enveloped hers, leaving a neatly folded check for the school in her palm. She wouldn't say how much the check was for, but she couldn't believe how big it was.


"They weren't only generous with their children," Berry said. "They were generous with everyone that touched their children's lives."

When Melanie Billings picked up her children from school, she would stretch out her arms, and "the kids would run to her, the ones that could," Berry said. "They would go as fast they could with their arms in the air for Mom to take them."

For one daughter's prom, the couple created a Cinderella scene. The girl's dress was white, her date wore a white tuxedo with a pink tie, and the couple emerged from a white limousine.
"The beam on Byrd and Mel's faces, and on the parents of the young man, is something I'll never forget," Berry said. "It was picture-perfect."

More at link:

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20090713/D99DR8N84.html
 
:eek: The guy linked to the Casey Anthony case was arrested and serving time somewhere around here in the Panhandle! Wasn't it in Okaloosa or Walton county?? Anyone remember?

We're prolly reaching, but as strange as things have gone in that case - you can't rule anything out. Hey...just sayin'

I'm wracking my brain here. What guy linked to the Casey Anthony case was arrested?
 
Hi everyone! I agree wholeheartedly - thanks for the imput, and please don't be offended as we dig for info. . . it's a process and not meant to disparage anyone!!!! I have a question that Mom23 might be able to answer. When checking Melanie Billlings in Escambia records last night, there were a couple cases that "stuck out". It looks like she had to fight for childrens rights in court - God Love Her. The first case that bugs me is regrading the estate if Arnold Sorrells and the respondents are James and Dwight Sorrells. Was there another estate issue here? These guys appear to be the same kind of low life criminals that Lpatrick associated with - could there be a grudge motive as well as robbery?

The other one is "Michael S Billings" in regard to the custody of "Byrd Starling" (What a beautiful name!). Did Melanie take custody of her own son's child? Are any of her children (or Byrd's) estranged from the family?

I can't imagine that's the case - but could there be an angry biological parent involved?

Thanks again - You guys ROCK!!!! There is so much info being found!


I do not know anything of the Sorrells case. It could have been before I met them. I just really don't know.

Melanie & Bud did not have any bio sons. Their oldest adopted son just graduated from HS. So no they did not take custody of any of their children's children.

They also do not have a son named Michael. They do have a son named Matthew that was another private adoption but no Michael.

None of their children were estranged. They are a very close knit family.
 
Bud's name was Byrd Starling Billings. Could be the connection that way. Are you sure the record didn't say Matthew S. Billings? That would fit one of their children's names.
 
I'm wracking my brain here. What guy linked to the Casey Anthony case was arrested?

I very vaguely remember, but there was a friend of hers (I think) who was arrested for something having to do with car or car part theft. I will have to search the Anthony threads for his name. I hope I'm not dreaming this! Does anyone else remember?

ETA: I'm sure there is no relation to this case - I was just kicking around something mikeysmom brought up.
 
I looked up what you are referring to. It shows her and Bud both as petitioners. The children involved were Kylee and Kristyn who I know both resided with Bud and Melanie for a while. Kristyn is now an adult.

I'm simply going to say that I do not know who Michael Billings was or how he is related. If he is a bio child I never heard Mel or Bud speak of him, that doesn't mean he wasn't just that I didn't know him. Maybe a child from Bud's first marriage which was long long before I met them.

I did not see the Sorrells case you mentioned.
 
WEAR TV said to expect another update by the sheriff tonight. Most likely more arrest made.
 
No not on the market. It was Melanie's intention that those children live there forever.

weird about the link
 
No not on the market. It was Melanie's intention that those children live there forever.

weird about the link

I just reread through it - it looks like it is one of those "Make Me Move" things if they got the right price but all the info about the 18 cameras, 8500 Sq Ft Home and everything else is on there. Sounds like a beautiful home.
 
Just found where it looks like WEAR/ABC put a video up from an interview with the brother and sister of LPG, Sr.
http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wear_vid_2712.shtml

Transcript from their site:

ESCAMBIA COUNTY - Family members of the father and son charged in the case, Leonard Gonzalez Senior and Junior, have nothing good to say about the men.

In an exclusive interview with our Mollye Barrows, the sister and brother of Gonzalez Senior say they are not surprised he's been charged in this case.

Regina McCartney: "They're not crazy. They are mean. They are hateful. They are dangerous. They need to be removed out of society."

That's what Regina McCartney has to say about her own brother, Leonard Gonzalez Senior, and his son, Leonard Gonzalez Junior also known as Patrick.

McCartney says her brother has long struggled with drugs and alcohol.

McCartney: "He's a drug addict and it's all about money."

In fact, McCartney says her brother Leonard has threatened her life and her brother Frank's life after their father died several years ago.

McCartney was left in charge of their mother and their estate.

Regina McCartney/Suspect's Sister: "He wants drug money and he assumes my parents had money and with my mom in late stages of Alzheimer's, it's taken a lot of money to care for her."

Both Leonard and his son have a criminal record.

In fact, their family says the two were separated for years by divorce but got to know each other again after they were coincidentally put in jail together.

Frank Gonazalez/Suspect's Brother: "They reunited in jail, locked up one time, that was about the time Patrick took his name Gonzalez back. They don't care about anybody, but what they want at that time, other than that the world revolves around them."

McCartney says the third man arrested with them, Wayne Coldiron is a longtime friend of her brother's. And she believes they're all dangerous, and money is the root of all this violence.

McCartney: "He wants more and more and more. There's no stopping him. I don't think the good Lord can stop Leonard." What about his son, how would you describe him? "The apple doesn't fall from the tree."


They had a differently edited video they showed on the 6:00 p.m. news, where McCartney says, "He called and left a message on my cell phone and it said, 'Regina, this is Leonard. Darling, when you walk out on your front porch,' he said, 'Smile, you're on crosshairs.' And I had no idea what that was. And i found out since that's a weapon."

WEAR has also been showing footage from a story they ran in 2007 with LPG, Jr. at his Taekwondo studio in Gulf Breeze where he's teaching young kids. He was known to WEAR at the time as "Patrick Poff"

He says to he kids in the segment, "If someone touches me in a way that makes me feel bad, I tell someone [kids yelling together--inaudible]."

[Poff/LPG, Jr.] "Not all abductions today are stranger abductions. A lot of them are acquaintance abductions."

The segment says Poff specialized in teaching kids to protect themselves.

The reporter for the current story mentions LPG, Jr.'s desires to get his own 8 year old daughter back and his myspace page mood & status. The reporter also says, "authorities don't think this has anything to do with the killings, but they are saying this case is more bizarre than any one expected."
 
I looked up what you are referring to. It shows her and Bud both as petitioners. The children involved were Kylee and Kristyn who I know both resided with Bud and Melanie for a while. Kristyn is now an adult.

I'm simply going to say that I do not know who Michael Billings was or how he is related. If he is a bio child I never heard Mel or Bud speak of him, that doesn't mean he wasn't just that I didn't know him. Maybe a child from Bud's first marriage which was long long before I met them.

I did not see the Sorrells case you mentioned.

Thanks! Here's a link to the Sorrell's case:

http://www.escambiaclerk.com/xml/xml.asp?ucase_id=88196796

Strange there is a receipt of payment by a "Melissa Holley" on 5/2/2006, and "Mary Holley" is Jpatrick's aunt's name. I wonder if there's a connection?
 
I hate to be invasive, but there seems to be alot of different family members on there. Might clear some things and names up. Let me pull out the box of kleenex out!
 
Is there oldest son Justin? Graduated from what looks like a military academy>?

EDIT TO ADD:

It looks like their son graduated from St Johns Military academy. Could it be someone in his class that knew he had extreme wealth??? Some connection there???
 
Thanks! Here's a link to the Sorrell's case:

http://www.escambiaclerk.com/xml/xml.asp?ucase_id=88196796

Strange there is a receipt of payment by a "Melissa Holley" on 5/2/2006, and "Mary Holley" is Jpatrick's aunt's name. I wonder if there's a connection?


I think the A. Melissa Holley is the plaintiff's atty. The $255 was the filing fees she paid. I doubt Jpatrick has an attorney in the family, although they probably wish they did.
 
Well, I really doubt that any political theorist would equate socialism with condoning cold-blooded murder. Socialist theory doesn't say anything at all about "give some to me because you're more wealthy." What it says is, "Each according to ability and each according to need." Families, for example, are the ultimate in socialist units: if one kid needs braces and the other doesn't, then one kid gets more of the family's dental fund spent on him. The baby still gets to eat, even though he doesn't bring in money from a paper route like the 12 yr-old does--both of them need to eat, even though one produces wealth and the other just lays there and sponges off the rest of the family in a cute and drooly fashion. That's what socialism is, at least in its purest theoretical form.

I imagine any Socialist with a true understanding of political theory would look at the perpetrators--who have the resources to have a ginormous 15-passenger van in running order, and look at the Billings--who have a large family with huge medical needs--and say that the Billings were, in fact, in greater need, and that therefore the greater distribution was just. A socialist would NOT say, give some to the criminal, nor would a socialist even recognize the steps that it took to equate one to the other. Robin Hood is a myth, and it's doubtful that any criminal who tries to use that as an excuse actually has any real understanding of Das Kapital.

I understand (I think) what you're trying to say about the criminal underworld and its justifications, but anyone who knows anything about socialism would likely place the criminal justification mindset and roots of class warfare (at least in the US) at the feet of Capitalism and its predecessor, the Puritan Work Ethic and the history of Calvinism--at least as much as they would socialism or any other political theory.

Of course, like any theory, socialism in it's "purest" theoretical form, and what big-S Socialism mutates into when practiced as a form of government, are two different things. Because whenever you bring humans and human self-interest into any theory or system, it all turns into one big Lord of the Flies. So I suppose in that sense, you're correct.

(Sorry to go off on a tangent there, but my particular pet peeve is when terms with a long and particular history get thrown around completely devoid of accurate context. Spent too many years correcting shallow grasps of theory on essays, I suppose.)

Thank you for this post. Socialism v. Capitalism is off topic in this post, but I'm glad you explained the ideals of socialism (in a much more coherent way than I could have) because American's have a really awful and skewed view of it.

I hate hearing "OBAMA THE SOCIALIST!!" but when you look at countries like the Netherlands that practice socialist policies it doesn't seem so bad. For instance: their version of Section 8 Housing isn't stigmatized as it is in America. Rather, it's more like "Way to go! Good deal" From what I understand of Socialism, there's much less in the way of class warfare than there is in capitalism.
 
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