Two suspects shot at police from their stolen vehicles after they robbed and murdered an elderly couple from North Carolina.
Eric Alexander Campbell was arrested along with his father for the crimes. (ABC11)
The father and son team robbed the elderly couple, murdered them and torched their home.
The Daily Mail reported:
An elderly couple have been found dead after a father and son broke into their house in an apparent random home invasion, set the place on fire and abducted them.
Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife Dora, 62, were taken from their home in Oak Hill, North Carolina at 7am on New Year’s Day by two men who also stole their SUV.
Police in Lewisburg, West Virginia found the couple’s bodies around 4pm following a shootout with the suspects when officers pulled over the stolen truck.
The son, who was driving the stolen white Chevrolet SUV, opened fire on police, according to reports.
His father, in a red SUV, also opened fire on the officers, before taking off.
The father fled in his truck but was captured 90 minutes later in the woods. A search of his truck revealed two dead bodies under a mattress on the flatbed, according to WRAL.
Sheriff Brindell Wilkins, of Granville County, North Carolina, told the station that he believes the couple were killed at their home and their bodies loaded into the truck.
The sheriff said that he believed that the motive as robbery and that the couple were randomly targeted, according to WRAL.
He said that the couple were ‘wonderful people’ and that Mr Faulkner was a retired fire chief with the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department.
The couple’s sons, one who is also a firefighter, were at the scene helping investigators.
ALt. Michael Baylous, of the West Virginia State Police, said the driver of the white SUV fled the scene and hid but later turned himself in without incident.
He drove behind a guardrail on the interstate and hid but then eventually came out and handed himself in to police, according to WV Gazette.
Jerome and Dora Faulkner were robbed and murdered on New Year’s Day. (ABC 11)