West Virginia juvenile charged with murdering 4 family members in house

12/14/2020 9:58 am PST

UPDATE 5 p.m. ET:

"We are unable to release the names of the victims of the murder investigation which began yesterday on Cemetery Hill Drive in Elkview, WV. There have been delays notifying some immediate family members for the deceased," the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office announced in a Monday update. "Autopsies were conducted today. When those reports are completed we should be provided with precise causes of death and estimates of the dates and times of death. Each victim appears to have been shot with a firearm.

"The juvenile subject charged with the murders is a 16-year-old male. His name and other identifying information will be withheld due to his age."

MORE: Cemetery Hill Drive homicides update - Kanawha County Sheriff's Office Facebook

ELKVIEW, W.Va. (TCD) --

A juvenile is charged with four murders after the bodies of four family members were found murdered in a house in West Virginia Sunday, the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office announced.

Deputies responded to a 911 call from a house on the 1300 block of Cemetery Hill Drive in Elkview at about 10:40 a.m. Sunday. The caller had gone to the house to check on family members after there was no contact from them for days, according to the sheriff's office.

The visitor found the door unlocked and went inside the house, where he found three family members dead "from an apparent act of violence," according to the sheriff's office. Deputies later found a fourth body in the house.

The victims are a man, a woman, a 12-year-old boy and a 3-year-old boy, all family members, according to the sheriff's office.

The fifth resident of the house, an unidentified juvenile, was found at another location. That juvenile has been charged with four murders.

West Virginia MetroNews reports Kanawha County Sheriff Rutherford told reporters earlier Sunday that a fifth member of the family, a teenage boy, had been located away from the crime scene and was being spoken to by deputies.

WOWK-TV reports the other juvenile resident of the house that was later found is believed to be a 16-year-old family member.

UPDATE: Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford says two adults and two boys around the ages of 12 and 3 were found dead earlier this morning. The eldest 16-year-old brother has been located. @WOWK13News
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