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Six slain; relative charged

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 14, 2006

LEOLA, Pa. - A 21-year-old man was arrested Thursday on homicide charges, accused of killing six relatives whose bodies were found wrapped in sheets and blankets in the basement of his grandmother's home.

Authorities said Jesse Dee Wise confessed, but they would not comment on a possible motive. The victims spanned three generations of the same family; the youngest was 5 years old.

Three of the victims were hit in the head with a blunt metal object, and three others were strangled, police said in an affidavit.

Wise was arraigned on six counts of criminal homicide. As a judge recited the charges, Wise seemed to read along with a listing of the victims. "When will I get a lawyer?" he asked.

Wise was ordered held without bail. The judge set a preliminary hearing for April 20.

Investigators say they discovered bone fragments, hair and a hammer in two upstairs bedrooms at the house. There also appeared to be blood on the walls and ceilings, authorities said.

In a guitar case at the home, police found two 17-inch pieces of metal that appeared to have blood on them. The objects were wrapped at one end with cloth and "had the appearance of a homemade weapon/club, capable of causing death if used as a weapon," according to the affidavit.

The victims appear to have died of multiple traumatic injuries sometime last weekend, Lancaster County District Attorney Don Totaro said.

East Lampeter Township police Chief John Bowman said the dead were Wise's 64-year-old grandmother, Emily Wise; Wanda Wise, 45, and Agnes Arlene Wise, 43, both thought to be his aunts; two of Emily Wise's grandchildren, Skyler Wise, 19, and Chance Wise; and another 17-year-old relative, Jessie James Wise.

The bodies were found after Emily Wise's husband called from New York on Wednesday asking a relative to check on his family in the three-story house in Leola, a small village in Lancaster County's rural Amish country.

Jessie L. Wise, 60, was worried because he had not heard from his wife since Friday, authorities said.

The relative, John Sean Adams, 24, met the first officer at the house.

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

Police found several bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets and piled on the basement floor, one of them with obvious head wounds, according to the affidavit. One body was at the bottom of the steps wrapped in a comforter secured with a phone cord. The affidavit also described blood in the rooms and bone fragments.

Court records show more than a dozen charges are pending against Jesse Dee Wise in the county, including burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery.

[Last modified April 14, 2006, 01:58:12]