17-Year-Old Girl Charged After Four Family Members Found Murdered in Home

A 17-year-old girl has been charged after four members of the same family were found murdered at their home in West Virginia.

The bodies of two adults and two children were found inside a residence in the 1300 block of Cemetery Hill Drive in Elkview on Sunday morning.

The victims have since been identified by the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office as 37-year-old Daniel Dale Long, 39-year-old Risa Mae Saunders, 12-year-old Gage Ripley and three-year-old Jameson Long.

At the weekend, the sheriff's office reported that a 16-year-old boy had been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the killings.

On Wednesday, the sheriff's office said a second teenager—the 17-year-old girl—is also being charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the case.

Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford told Newsweek the girl was not a resident of the home.

The two teenagers know each other, he added, but he could not release additional information because both suspects are juveniles.

"This is not the typical case that we have where we have adults involved and because, they're juveniles, we're restricted by code," Rutherford said, according to WSAZ.

"We certainly don't want to do anything that would cause a problem down the road with any possible prosecution."

Earlier in the week, Rutherford said autopsies were conducted on the victims.

"When those reports are completed we should be provided with precise causes of death and estimates of the dates and times of death," he said.

But he added that each victim appears to have been shot with a firearm.

The sheriff's office said a relative discovered the bodies of three of the victims after going to check on them on Sunday morning.

"They'd not had contact with the relatives for days," the sheriff's office said in a news release at the weekend.

"When the caller arrived he found the door unlocked and entered. He discovered three of the residents dead from an apparent act of violence. He went to a nearby house and called 911."

When deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered a fourth victim, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies also located a fifth resident of the house elsewhere.

Little details have been revealed about the crime, but the sheriff's office said it did not appear to be random.

This article has been updated with a comment from Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford.