A 46-year-old woman and her two teenage children were discovered dead with their hands bound in their Wilmer, Alabama, home on Monday morning. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch described the scene as brutal, with the victims killed in separate rooms amid signs of a targeted attack. Authorities have positive leads and are searching for one or more suspects.
Lisa Ferguson, 46, Keziah Luker, 17, and Thomas Cordell, 12, were found dead early Monday in their home on Auble Moody Road in Wilmer, an unincorporated community about 25 miles northwest of Mobile and near the Mississippi border. Officers responded to the scene around 2:30 a.m. after a family member checked on them, prompted by the father of Luker's unborn child noticing her phone activate in the middle of the night. Burch said during a press conference that all three had their hands bound behind them with zip ties or flex cuffs, and the home showed disarray, including open dresser drawers, suggesting someone was searching for something. > All three victims had their hands bound behind them with zip ties or flex cuffs. The mother was stabbed, the 17-year-old was shot, and the 12-year-old, his throat was cut … as was the mom. Sheriff Burch detailed the injuries: Ferguson was stabbed and had her throat cut, Luker—who was seven or eight months pregnant—was shot, and Cordell had his throat cut, nearly decapitated. The victims were in separate rooms, and Burch indicated the attackers had a plan, bringing zip ties with them. > They had a plan coming in to bring zip ties with them. To murder two children brutally, the 12-year-old was almost decapitated, and so it was a brutal scene. Burch called it a targeted crime, not a domestic situation, and noted it would be hard for one person to control all three victims simultaneously, suggesting multiple perpetrators. His office has positive leads and aims to apprehend the suspect or suspects soon. The district attorney's office will decide on potential charges related to the unborn child.