Christmas Day slayings
Calling case ‘domestic,’ sheriff says female victims age 8-50
Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones speaks Saturday in Russellville about the Christmas Day slayings of five people, including three children, in a home near Atkins.
ATKINS — Five people, including three children, were found dead late Christmas Day at a home in a rural area near Atkins, Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones said Saturday afternoon.
The female victims ranged in age from 8 to 50, Jones said at a 1:30 p.m. news conference in Russellville. He described the case as “domestic-related.”
Authorities did not release the names of the deceased, and there was no mailbox at the end of the long driveway through the woods to the house.
Police had yet to establish a motive or name a suspect in the case, he said Saturday afternoon, adding that the killings were likely isolated to the “family members of the home.”
“At this time, we believe this is an isolated incident and do not feel that there is any continued danger to the local public,” Jones said Saturday afternoon.
Authorities were called just after 5 p.m. Friday to the home in the 5100 block of Pine Ridge Road, after a family member discovered the bodies, Jones said.
Authorities believe at least some of the victims had been shot, the sheriff said.
A sheriff’s office news release Saturday evening said investigators were processing evidence with help from the Arkansas State Police and the state Crime Laboratory.
“We anticipate this being an in-depth investigation that will span many days in an effort to collect and process all the evidence on scene,” the news release said.
Just south of the rolling hills of the nearby Ozark National Forest, the small town of Atkins — with a population of 3,037 — was devastated by the Christmas tragedy, residents said.
“It’s just a bad thing — a bad thing to happen,” said Wanda Harris, a neighbor who lives down the two-lane, paved road from where the killings occurred.
Homes in that part of Pope County are separated by small patches of woods.
As with many of the houses in that area, the one-story home where Friday’s slayings occurred sits at the end of a long driveway.
One neighbor said Saturday afternoon that she was lying in bed and heard gunshots, “pop, pop, pop,” but in the rural area, the sound of gunshots is not uncommon.
What is uncommon is the number of cars that traveled on Pine Ridge Road on Saturday, neighbors said.
“This road is never this busy, never this busy,” a neighbor said as two cars passed by.
What traffic there is on the secluded road is normally heaviest on Sundays when people drive to the church up the road, the neighbor said.
Atkins is a small town that for years was sustained in large part by the Atkins Pickle Co., which meant jobs and a bit of culinary recognition until the plant closed in 2002, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
One of the neighbors on Pine Ridge Road on Saturday said Friday’s killing reminded her of another Christmastime tragedy in Pope County — 33 years ago.
Over the Christmas weekend in 1987, Ronald Gene Simmons killed 16 people, including members of his family, in nearby Dover and Russellville.
It was the worst mass murder in the history of Arkansas, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
“That was in Dover, and you felt like ‘oh my god that was too close to being home,’ and then it happened here,” the neighbor said.
“When you actually know the people, it’s hard.”