Oklahoma family found dead: 'We've just never seen anything like this'

                 

Residents of the Tulsa bedroom community of Broken Arrow, Okla., were reeling Thursday following the overnight slaughter of five family members in what police are calling the worst homicide in the history of a town known for its lack of crime.

The dead included two adults, presumed to be the parents, and three children, roughly between 5 and 15 years of age. Another girl was hospitalized in serious condition with stab wounds and a 2-year-old who apparently hid during the attack was found unharmed at the scene.

“They were all stabbed,” said Police Sgt. Thomas M. Cooper. “It was a pretty gruesome scene.”

Kim LaForrest said that her fellow Broken Arrow residents have long prided themselves for living in a community that lacked big city crime. Not anymore.

“What shocks most people is that it happened in Broken Arrow — you’d expect something like this, say, in north Tulsa, but never here,” said LeForrest, a waitress at Uncle Vinny’s New York Pizza. “We live in a town with incredibly low crime rates. We want to keep that small-town feel. But this makes Broken Arrow feel like any other place.”

Two young males, ages 16 and 18, were in custody and are presumed to be the oldest children of the slain family, whose name has not been released, police said.

“It’s not a good day,” said Mayor Craig Thurmond of the town that averages less than one homicide each year. “If this were a home invasion the whole community would be worried, but we don’t think that occurred here, When any tragedy happens, you always try to figure out why. But we feel safe here.”

Officers were alerted after a 911 call that was mostly ominous silence was received at 11:32 p.m. came from a two-story, single-family home in a leafy upscale subdivision near the Indian Springs Country Club.

“There were some sounds, but it was mainly silence,” Cooper said. An officer was dispatched and arrived at the home about 11:40. When he saw the bodies, he called for extra help.

“It appears that the two suspects fled out the door sometime during our arrival,” Cooper said.

latimes.com