Iowa police yesterday arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the second mass killing in the US this month.
The victims included a mother and her five children, whose bodies were found in their home in Sioux City, Iowa, this week. Another man was killed in a separate location.
Mr Adam Matthew Moss, the chief suspect in the killings, was caught yesterday following an intensive manhunt after babysitter Ms Donna Stabile discovered the bodies at about 5:30 p.m. on Thursday (22.30 p.m. Irish time) at the family's home.
In the hours before his capture, police received numerous reports of sightings of the fugitive and the city was on edge.
Sioux City, a livestock centre in western Iowa on the borders of Nebraska and South Dakota, has about 84,000 residents and is considered a generally safe city. It usually records only two homicides a year.
The bodies of Ms Leticia Aguilar and her young children Claudia, Zach, Larry, Lisa and Michael were found by their babysitter in their two-storey home in a poor neighborhood of the city after the children failed to show up for their regular appointment. Ms Stabile alerted police, who just 30 minutes earlier had arrived at the home across town of businessman Mr Ronald Earl Fish (58). Mr Fish's body had been discovered by a co-worker who had gone there to check up on him after he failed to show up for work, police said.
Sioux City police believe the homicides of Mr Fish, Ms Aguilar and her children were connected. Mr Moss worked at the same packaging company as Ms Aguilar, Smurfit-Stone Container, and had previously been employed by Mr Fish, who ran a tyre company.
Police indicated that Ms Aguilar and Mr Moss may have had some kind of a relationship and that Mr Moss had spent considerable time at her home recently.
It is not clear how long the bodies went undiscovered, but a truant officer for the Sioux City Community School District had attempted to contact the family on Tuesday.
A note on the family's door said they were out of town.
Police wouldn't release details of how they were killed, saying only that it was a horrid scene. The children ranged in age from five to 12 years.
"This is the most heinous, brutal homicide I have ever seen - and I've been a police officer for 34 years," said police chief Joe Frisbie. He said the murders were among the worst in state history.
He would not comment on how the seven died, saying only that Mr Moss "could make a weapon out of anything".
Officers who witnessed the crime scene would be offered "stress evaluation" and counselling, he said.
Mr Moss, who has a police record that goes back to 1994, including a conviction for serious assault, was wanted on a warrant for stealing Mr Fish's car.
Mr Mark Stroman told reporters he was a friend of Mr Moss and had worked for Mr Fish.
"The last time I'd seen (Moss), he said he just got out of prison for drugs, assault and criminal mischief. He said he was living with a girl and he seemed like he was getting his life straight," he said. Just a week ago, Mr Moss's brother Jason was granted a permanent order of protection against his sibling after Mr Moss threatened him.
Autopsies on Ms Aguilar, her children and Mr Fish were expected to be completed late last night.
It has been a busy summer for the mass killings of children, beginning in Texas with Ms Andrea Yates, who drowned her children. Last week, a Ukranian immigrant was accused of stabbing his wife, child and four other relatives to death, triggering an international manhunt. He was found hiding in his mother's backyard in Sacramento, California.
Additional reporting: AFP