What is this World Coming To?

6 bodies found in Pa. home
Updated 4/13/2006 11:10 AM ET

LEOLA, Pa. (AP) — Police checking on a home in a tiny southeast Pennsylvania town discovered a gruesome scene: the bodies of six people, some wrapped in sheets and blankets in the basement, and blood, bone fragments and a hammer upstairs, authorities said Thursday.
Police in East Lampeter Township, just outside Lancaster, said they were speaking to a "person of interest" early Thursday and hoped to release more details later in the day.

The discovery of the bodies in the three-story house on Leola's Main Street followed a series of phone calls to 911 Wednesday afternoon.

John Sean Adams, 24, a friend of homeowner Jessie L. Wise, met the first officer at the house. He said Wise had called him from New York concerned about his family because he hadn't heard from them since Friday. They were planning to visit Wise in New York, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case.

When the officer and Adams went inside, Adams stopped halfway down the basement steps and yelled, "They're all dead! All six of them are dead!" the affidavit stated.

Authorities didn't immediately say how the victims died except that one had an obvious head wound. Four of the bodies were found wrapped in sheets and blankets in the basement, one at the bottom of the steps wrapped in a comforter secured with a phone cord, the affidavit stated.
Police also found dark marks that looked like blood on the walls and ceiling of two third-floor bedrooms. The beds had been stripped of sheets and blankets.

Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said he had yet to positively identify the six and planned to start the autopsies Thursday morning.

Police received the first call about a concern at the house in Leola, a small village in Lancaster County's rural Amish country, around 1:30 p.m. The person called back a few minutes later to cancel the request for help, then called again at 2:05 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The affidavit does not identify the caller but says Adams met East Lampeter Township police Officer Samuel Sanger at the home.

According to the search warrant, police were searching the property for fingerprints, weapons, a hammer and phone cord, as well as anything wrapped around the victim's necks. They were also seeking personal effects and financial information related to the victims.
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