Authorities in Louisiana say they have connected three murder victims found at two separate crime scenes to a brother and sister in Alexandria.
According to Time, Matthew Sonnier, 29, and Ebony Nicole Sonnier, 31, were arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Reports indicate authorities found two victims, 33-year-old Kendrick Dwann Horn and 28-year-old Jeremy Deon Norris, in a ditch alongside a Rapides Parish road last week. The bodies and surrounding brush were reportedly burned and investigators did not locate the victims until the fire was extinguished.
Earlier the same day, police reportedly found the body of Latish White, 42, who had been fatally stabbed and left partially clothed.
Matthew Sonnier was first connected to White’s death, but in subsequent days both he and his sister have become suspects in all three murders.
KALB reported that Matthew Sonnier had been convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon in 2014 and was sentenced to 10 years without parole. District Attorney Phillip Terrell told the outlet that he was released early on parole after serving 40 percent of his sentence.
He was initially arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder in the investigation into White’s death. Both he and his sister now reportedly face first-degree murder charges in addition to other lesser criminal counts.
Rapides Parish Sheriff William Earl Hilton said he could not offer many details at this point regarding how the three victims might have been connected.
“I absolutely don’t want to do anything that’s going to cause a problem in the future for the prosecution,” he said.
As KALB reported, though, Hilton confirmed the charges against the sibling suspects came after what has already been a complex investigation.
“There are many, many years of law enforcement experience in this room today and as we have been talking earlier this morning, no one can remember this many different crime scenes that we had to process,” he said. “We have eight different locations where this case went and led us and hundreds of pieces of evidence that have been collected.”
[Featured image: Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office]
