A woman and two children found dead in a car submerged in Alabama’s Walter F. George reservoir this week were shot to death.
Demetrius Deveonte McGhee, 26, has been charged with four counts of capital murder in the deaths of Remona Hudson and her two young sons, whose names have not been released, WSFA reported.
A jogger spotted the blue Toyota early Monday morning in the lake in Old Town Creek Park and alerted police, who found the bodies as they began to pull the vehicle out of the water, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Barbour County Coroner Chip Chapman said the victims were already dead when the car was pushed into the water.
Hudson and the two boys lived together in a house in Cuthbert, Georgia, about 25 miles from where the vehicle was found. The reservoir, also known as Lake Eufaula in Alabama, sits on about 85 miles of the state line between Georgia and Alabama.
Authorities said McGhee faces four counts of murder because of the circumstances of the crimes, according to the Dothan Eagle: Two of the counts relate to firing a weapon inside a vehicle, one relates to one of the victims being under 14 years old, and the fourth has to do with multiple murders “pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct.”
On the same day the car was found in the lake, McGhee was life-flighted from Eufaula to Southeast Health in Dothan, although it is not clear what medical treatment he received or where he was found. He was released from the hospital later in the day and arrested by state law enforcement agents.
Investigators have not revealed McGhee’s relationship with Hudson or the children.
According to news reports, McGhee witnessed his older brother, Dextrell Williams, kill his girlfriend and then himself, WSFA said. McGhee’s mother, Betty Gene Williams, told the station she also witnessed her son’s suicide and that McGhee was never the same afterward.
“I’m just so sorry,” she said. “I just want the family to know that I am so sorry in my deepest in my heart. I am so sorry for what my son did, and I am just so sorry.”
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[Featured image: Car submerged in Alabama lake/WSFA video]
