AL- Three deaths in Etowah County

Posted in Related Deaths

8-22-2006 Alabama:

Three teenagers were held hostage throughout the night after an uncle shot and killed their parents on Monday afternoon. The man killed himself when deputies responded to a 911 call about 5:30 a.m.

Officials with the Etowah County Sheriff's Department identified who shot his sister and brother-in-law as Johnny Ray Holderfield, 40, a convicted sex offender registered in Marshall County. His most recent address was on Alabama 168 between Douglas and Boaz.

Etowah County Coroner Jason Maise identified the victims as Jane C. Stokes, 45, and her husband, Brian Keith Stokes, 34, who lived at 2660 Buster Willett Road, Attalla, Maise said.

According to reports from the scene, the incident started Monday.

Holderfield shot and killed his sister, deputies said, then waited for the three children to get off the school bus. The children were suspicious and couldn't find their mother, who had been shot in a back bedroom of the mobile home. He then took the children, a 15-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl annd and a 14-year-old girl, to a travel trailer behind the home, where he bound them with duct tape.

When Brian Keith Stokes arrived home from work about 6:30 a.m., Holderfield apparently shot and killed him.

Sometime during the night, Holderfield moved the children to an empty mobile in the yard and apparently sexually assaulted at least one of the girls.

Early Tuesday morning, the 15-year-old boy was able to break free and he sneaked out of the mobile home, saw that his parents were dead inside the family's home and he drove to his grandparents house nearby. The grandparents called 911 and went with the boy back to the home, where they encountered Holderfield outside the mobile.

They were able to escape from him as deputies arrived. Holderfield ran back inside the vacant mobile home and the deputy heard a gunshot. The girls apparently were still inside the vacant mobile home and saw Holderfield shoot himself.

The children were taken to the hospital as the investigation continues. The three were pronounced dead on the scene at 7:42 a.m. Tuesday, Maise said. The bodies have been sent to Huntsville for autopsies. ..more.. The Gadsden Times