daisy7
Retired WS Staff
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Couple who adopted 12 children shot to death
Home invasion suspected, deputies say
A Beulah couple who adopted 12 children and owned several local businesses were found shot to death in an apparent home invasion Thursday evening.
The bodies of Byrd and Melanie Billings were found in the bedroom of their home in the 9700 block of Mobile Highway about 7:30 p.m.
"There were children in the home," Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Ted Roy said. "They are all accounted for and safe."
Roy said deputies found several children at the home ranging in age from an infant to 11 years old.
"The deputies had to wake some of the children," Roy said.
The Billingses were featured in a Christmas Day story in the Pensacola News Journal in 2005. At the time, the couple were the proud parents of 16 children. Twelve were adopted among them, children of drug users, children who were sexually abused and children with developmental disabilities. Six of the 12 had Down syndrome. Two had died.
(snipped)
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090710/NEWS01/907100327
How sad and these poor children!!
Home invasion suspected, deputies say
A Beulah couple who adopted 12 children and owned several local businesses were found shot to death in an apparent home invasion Thursday evening.
The bodies of Byrd and Melanie Billings were found in the bedroom of their home in the 9700 block of Mobile Highway about 7:30 p.m.
"There were children in the home," Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Ted Roy said. "They are all accounted for and safe."
Roy said deputies found several children at the home ranging in age from an infant to 11 years old.
"The deputies had to wake some of the children," Roy said.
The Billingses were featured in a Christmas Day story in the Pensacola News Journal in 2005. At the time, the couple were the proud parents of 16 children. Twelve were adopted among them, children of drug users, children who were sexually abused and children with developmental disabilities. Six of the 12 had Down syndrome. Two had died.
(snipped)
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090710/NEWS01/907100327
How sad and these poor children!!