Investigators are searching for the persons or people who slaughtered five family members in rural Illinois, warning nearby residents to lock their doors. The bodies were found in the home of Raymond and Ruth Gee after someone reported hearing shots fired.
Both parents were found dead, as well as three kids ages 11-16. A three-year-old girl managed to survive and has been hospitalized. Another 11-year-old daughter survived because she wasn't home; she has a severe brain injury and lives in a facility in Peoria.
Police haven't released a means of death, but this isn't a family -- or a town -- accustomed to trouble. Neighbors describe the Gees as hardworking, church-going folk. Raymond worked as a handyman. Ruth was a stay-at-home mom. And Beason, an isolated farming town on the Illinois plains two hours from Chicago, isn't a place you'd expect to find a massacre. But after the slaying of a family last week in Farmville, Virginia, it appears that this can happen anywhere. We'll keep you posted...