Six people found slain in Deltona home

[supaz]

CRAZY!
I wonder how many broke into that house?

[Steve Graham]

^^^ to have 6 dead all in different rooms, there must have been more than one, i believe, and i bet the dead knew their killers, like skahound said. But the fact they all worked at burger king... is that true? or am i misinterpereting... and apparently no one was meant to even be living in that house.

[master of puppets]

Wow, what kind of motherfucker could do something like that, there are really mad murders in USA, I couldn't sleep if I was there.

[MJ]

Re:: Six people found slain in Deltona home

shit happens!

Hmmm, like this is something that happens round you`re parts often is it? This is terrible thats what it is and the sooner they catch the person/persons that did it the better.

[supaz]

What is also troubling is they're using dental records to identify the victims! IMO, there has to be more than one person.

[skahound]

There was also a dog found dead in the house...not that this story wasn't grotesque enough as it was.

[SickBoy]

The dog did it. Case closed.

[skahound]

DELTONA, Florida (CNN) -- Authorities in Deltona, Florida, have arrested and charged four people in the killings of six people in a rental home, Volusia County's sheriff said Sunday.

Sheriff Ben Johnson said the murder was organized by a man who was angry because he believed his Xbox video game system and some clothes had been stolen.

Alleged ringleader Troy Victorino, 27, has not confessed, but three teenagers Johnson said Victorino recruited to assist him have, Johnson said. The three were identified as Robert Cannon, 18; Jerone Hunter, 18; and Michael Salas, 18.

All are charged with first degree murder and armed burglary.

The Associated Press reported that Victorino has a criminal record.

The four killers, armed with aluminum baseball bats, forced their way into the home where the victims were in beds early Friday morning, and beat them to death -- just as Victorino planned, Johnson said.

The victims had no chance to arm themselves or fight back, he said. "There was no way they could really defend themselves."

All of the victims experienced severe trauma -- and one body was so badly mangled that it has not yet been officially identified, he said.

"This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my career," Johnson said.

Authorities have released the names of two of the victims -- Michelle Nathan, 19, and Jonathan Gleason, 18, both of Deltona.

Investigators believe the attack occurred about 1 a.m. Friday. The bodies were found Friday morning about 6:30 a.m. when a co-worker, alarmed because one of the people failed to show up for work, went to the home and found the blood-spattered crime scene.

Victorino and Hunter were taken in for questioning on Sunday. Hunter confessed, and led authorities to Cannon and Salas, said Johnson.

Johnson said he does not believe any other people were involved in the incident.

[Steve Graham]

I am utterly speechless... My heart goes out to these victims families. As to what should be done to the perpetrators.. I dont think any form of punishment they can legally receive will do justice to this crime.

Over an X-Box and some clothes?

[runningman]

Re:: Six people found slain in Deltona home

they are stupid. Why would be beat someone to death over a an Xbox...Playstation i could see but X-box come on..

[peloquin]

extremely fucked up, these people deserve whatever they get (and some more)

burn in hell cocksuckers

[chato]

Re:: Six people found slain in Deltona home

shit happens!

You speak of it as something easy... it is really scary and dont wanna imagine the victims... they cant even be identified by their teeth!

[supaz]

absolutely sick news...
I don't know what to say...not even in movies do they
do this shit.

[Jibgolly]

gotta be drug and/or money related.
or just some sick 'manson-like' massacre.
cant believe this world we live in sometimes.
:cry:

[FM]

Police arrest four people in slayings of six in Florida home
8/8/2004, 7:14 p.m. ET
By MIKE BRANOM
The Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? An ex-convict who blamed a young woman for taking his video game system and clothes recruited three teenagers to stab and beat her and five others to death, investigators said Sunday.

The 22-year-old woman, believed to be Erin Belanger of Lowell, Mass., was singled out for an attack so vicious that even dental records were useless in trying to identify her. Some of the victims were attacked in their sleep, according to authorities.

The victims' bodies were found Friday in a blood-spattered home.

All four suspects have been charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary, the Volusia County sheriff's department said.

Suspected ringleader Troy Victorino, 27, of Deltona, was "very guarded" during questioning, Sheriff Ben Johnson said. Three 18-year-olds were also arrested Saturday: Robert Cannon of Orange City and Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas, both of Deltona.

All four were jailed in Daytona Beach while awaiting bail hearings on Monday. Johnson wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty, saying, "These families will never get over this."

The attack was the culmination of events revolving around a nearby vacant home owned by one of the victim's grandparents and used by squatters as a party house. The four men and two women who were slain had reported being harassed by the alleged assailants.

Investigators struggling to find a motive for the slayings believe the victims were killed over the theft of some clothes and an Xbox game system owned by Victorino, the sheriff's office said.

All four suspects were armed with aluminum bats when Victorino kicked in the locked front door, according to arrest records. The group wore black clothes and scarves on their faces, grabbed knives inside and attacked victims in different rooms of the three-bedroom house, authorities said.

The victims, some of whom were sleeping, did not put up a fight or try to escape, Johnson said. All had been stabbed, but autopsies determined the cause of death was the beating injuries.

The 6-foot-5 suspect Victorino has spent eight of the last 11 years in prison and was arrested for a probation violation eight days before the killings.

Hunter, who was with Victorino at the time, agreed to accompany investigators for questioning. Police said he admitted his role in the slayings and identified the other two suspects.

All four suspects appeared before a judge Saturday without attorneys. They will have a chance to ask for court-appointed lawyers on Monday.

Hunter, a high school wrestler, moved out of his family's house in May but recently agreed to return home for his senior year.

"He never seemed to be that type ... that was violent," his father Dan Washington told The Associated Press. "He was a good kid, he just got with the wrong crowd."

The sheriff's office has identified five of the victims as Michelle Ann Nathan, 19; Anthony Vega, 34; Jonathan Gleason, 18; Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, 28, who recently moved from New York and Belanger's boyfriend Francisco Ayo Roman, 30, who moved there from Lowell with Belanger. The sixth victim was believed to be Belanger, whose grandparents own the vacant home and spent the summer in Maine.

Joe Abshire, Belanger's brother-in-law, said she described heading to the vacant house to go swimming one day and finding about six people living there. The squatters were kicked out, but deputies were called to the grandparents' house six time in 10 days before the killings. The victims reported a tire-slashing at their home and a threat.

The squatters warned Belanger that "they were going to come back there and beat her with a baseball bat when she was sleeping," Abshire, who is married to Erin's sister Jennifer, told The Sun of Lowell, Mass., for Sunday editions.

Victorino complained that his belongings were removed from the grandparents' house while he was in jail following a July 29 arrest for battery, Johnson said. He said Victorino found his things boxed up at the victims' house and took them after the killings.

The bodies were discovered in the rental home in the working-class community about 25 miles north of Orlando after one of Nathan's co-workers at a Burger King asked someone to visit the house because she had not arrived for work.