http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/09/manhunt-for-killed-of-family-of-5-downstate.html
"This just doesn't happen here; people are in total shock," said
Debbie Harris, a relative of the family's surviving adult daughter,
Nicole Gee. "I can't wrap my head around their deaths."
Beason, an unincorporated town about 40 miles northeast of Springfield, is an agriculturally rich community in the heart of Illinois.
Harris, who lives 10 minutes outside Beason, said violent crime is such a rarity there that many residents don't bother locking their doors at night.
So when news broke about the gruesome discovery the day before, it seemed to put everyone on edge.
Nichols called the killings a "brutal homicide against an entire family" and vowed to track down the person or persons responsible. But authorities had yet to release any information about a possible suspect by Tuesday night, leaving many to speculate on what the motive might have been.
"It's hard to imagine that anyone who lives here would do this," said Oran Township Supervisor Ken Hutchison. "Normally, rumors would be flying, but nobody seems to know anything."
Harris said a neighborhood boy was the first to find the family dead. He had come from school Monday and knocked on the Gees' door. The door opened, Harris said, and the boy saw "a lot of blood" and quickly ran to alert family members. Nicole Gee and another relative arrived next on the scene and called police.
"I spoke to
Nicole, and she's doing pretty bad, as you might imagine," said
Harris, whose son Chris was married to Nicole Gee and fathered her two children. "She was so close to her family."
