2016 Citronelle homicides

Common card · No. 203706

On August 20, 2016, a mass murder occurred in Citronelle, Alabama, United States, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a woman who was five months pregnant. They were killed in the early morning in a private residence in a rural area west of the city. The residence was owned by a brother of Laneta Lester, who had sought refuge there. She and her brother's infant were abducted and taken to Leakesville, Mississippi, by her estranged boyfriend, Derrick Dearman, and held for ransom. She was found alive but badly beaten that day. Lester returned with the infant to Citronelle after a ransom was paid. She notified police of the killings. Investigators described this mass killing as the worst in Mobile County's history. The house burned down a couple of weeks after the crime. Dearman was considered a suspect. He was subsequently arrested after he turned himself in at the Greene County, Mississippi police station. He was extradited to Alabama, where he was charged with six counts of...

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