US: A 57-year-old man charged yesterday with the murder of nine people in Fresno, northern California, may have been the father of all of them, police said yesterday.
The bodies were found in Mr Marcus Wesson's house on Friday night after police were called to a domestic custody dispute. Inside the house officers found the nine bodies piled on top of each other in a small room. Alongside them were 10 coffins.
The victims were seven children aged between one and eight, a 17-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman. Mr Wesson may have fathered two of the victims with his own daughters, police said. The cause of the deaths was not revealed.
"He was a good father," said Mr Wesson's son Dorian, 29. "He wasn't abusive at all. I don't want to believe it. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But they're all dead.
Asked by reporters if he committed the murders, Mr Wesson replied only "I love you" as he was led away in handcuffs.
A large man with a bulky frame, Mr Wesson sported long black and grey dreadlocks.
He is thought to have four wives, and according to neighbours and colleagues exerted absolute control over the women in his home.
They would always walk behind him and only speak when given permission to do so. They usually wore long dark clothing and often went out in public with veils covering their faces.
And while Mr Wesson did not appear to have any employment, the women living in his house all worked, giving him their earnings.
Officers were called to the scene by two women who had given custody of their four children to Mr Wesson. They had gone to his house to demand their return. When police arrived on Friday afternoon they spoke to Mr Wesson, who went back inside the house and barricaded himself in a room.
After a standoff of almost two hours, during which some neighbours reported hearing shots, Mr Wesson walked out of the room, with his clothes spotted with blood. Police are understood to be keen to question 10 or 12 other people who were in the house at the time. - (The Guardian)