Man charged in killings; suspect in others

A man suspected of killing a mother and her two collegeage daughters was charged in the deaths of a couple.

A man suspected of killing a mother and her two college-age daughters was charged Tuesday in the deaths of a married couple afterward in another city, a sheriff said.

Stark County Sheriff George Maier identified the suspect as 45-year-old George Brinkman Jr., who was taken into custody early Tuesday after a standoff in Brunswick, south of Cleveland.

Maier said Brinkman worked for 71-year-old Rogell Eugene John and 64-year-old Roberta Ray John, whose bodies were found in their home in North Canton on Monday after their son grew concerned he couldn’t reach them upon their return from a vacation. It appears they were shot, the sheriff said.

Brinkman was watching the house while they were away, the sheriff said.

He was charged with two counts of murder, and investigators believe the couple was killed during a robbery because there were items missing from the house, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities in Stark County had been asked to look for Brinkman on Sunday because he was a person of interest in the deaths of the mother and her two daughters.

The bodies of 45-yearold Suzanne Taylor and her daughters, 21-year-old Taylor Pifer and 18-yearold Kylie Pifer, were found Sunday night in their home in North Royalton, about an hour’s drive from North Canton. Taylor Pifer was a fashion design student at Kent State, and Kylie was a biology student at Bowling Green State.

It was not known how Taylor or her daughters died, investigators said.

Brinkman was in the custody of police in North Royalton on Tuesday afternoon. Court documents do not list an attorney for him.

The Johns were killed after the three women were killed in North Royalton, the sheriff said.

The couple had been in the neighborhood of oneand two-story brick and clapboard houses for decades and were nice but kept to themselves, said Taylor Brown, 24, a neighbor of the Johns’ in North Canton.

DAKE KANG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Stark County Sheriff George T. Maier speaks to reporters in Canton, n Tuesday. Maier said the same man, George Brinkman Jr., is the suspect in the killing of a mother and her two college-age daughters and a married couple in another city in...