MONCURE, N.C. _ A man is suspected of killing six family members before turning the gun on himself Sunday evening in the rural Moncure area of southeastern Chatham County, the Chatham County Sheriff's Office said.
All those killed were found fatally shot in a cluster of homes off Moncure Flatwood Road, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Lt. Sara Pack stated in a news release.
The victims, including the suspected shooter, were Jeanie Ray, 67; Helen Mason, 93; Ellis Mansfield, 73; Lisa Mansfield, 54; John Paul Sanderford, 41; Nicole Sanderford, 39; and Larry Ray, 66.
Pack said Monday afternoon that evidence collected so far indicates Larry Ray was the gunman, and that he later fatally shot himself.
Investigators began working with the State Bureau of Investigation after responding to the "shots fired" call shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday. They worked through the night to gather details at the scene, she said.
There is no ongoing threat to the community, Pack stated in the release.
A 911 call from an upstairs bedroom on Moncure Flatwood Road was released Monday afternoon.
"There's a guy in my house shooting right now," the caller says. "I'm in my closet. I haven't seen him," he says. "I'm not coming out."
The 911 operator tells the caller to stay quiet if he fears the gunman might hear him and says she will stay on the line.
"Please get somebody here to the house," the caller says.
Seconds later, he asks, "How long is it going to take them to get here?"
Then, after three minutes, breathing heavily, the caller says he thinks the intruder may have left.
"It doesn't feel like he's in the house anymore," he says.
He tells the operator his father and mother were in the house with him and that he heard maybe six shots. He leaves his room.
"Oh my God," he says suddenly. "Blood everywhere."
Deputies arrive at the house 23 minutes into the call.
The operator tells the caller to stay in his bedroom, where he has returned, until the officers knock on his bedroom door.
"You just keep that door locked and shut until the officer calls out to you and knocks on your door," she says. "You're doing great, bud; I'm proud of you."
A few more second elapse.
The officers are entering the house.
"I'm in here!" he calls out.
Family members gathered Monday morning in the garage of Larry and Jeanie Ray's home across the street.
Mark Childress said he was there to support his brother and his brother's family. His brother's daughter, son-in-law and mother-in-law were among those killed he said.
"Right now, they're still in shock, and they don't want to talk to anybody," Childress said.
Kent Dickens, owner of the nearby Dickens RV Park, said most people in the small community between Moncure and Corinth knew the families affected by the tragedy.
The brother of the man who used to own The Community Store just a couple of miles away was one of the people killed, Dickens said. The parking lot of the store, a social hub where people go to pick up a pizza or catch up on the latest news, was empty Monday. A handwritten sign on the door said it was closed for a family emergency.
Dickens said he also knew Helen Mason and worked for her as a young man, "driving a tractor for 25 cents an hour."
"They was good folks," he said.
Investigators don't yet know the shooter's motive, Pack stated in Monday's news release.
Academic experts on killings within families said the facts so far don't fit known patterns for such crimes.
"These types of cases are so rare and even though we try to fit them into types, every case is going to be unique," said Carter Hay, professor of criminology at Florida State University, in an interview with The News & Observer on Monday.
"This is a very rare case, to have an age range than spans from 39 up to someone in their 90s, and it's really tough to say exactly what would explain this sort of thing," he said. It is also unusual to see shootings within a family in multiple locations, he said.
When someone does kill family members it is most often for two reasons, said Phillip Resnick, a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University.
"One is altruistic. That is the father does this out of love and as he becomes severely depressed, for example from loss of work, and ... he may kill the family and himself and leave a note that he doesn't want his children to suffer," Resnick told The N&O Monday. "The other category is where a woman is threatening to leave the man and take the children away. That would be out of anger instead of love.
"But once you get into multiple homes and relatives and killing of aunts and uncles that gets more complex as to what the grievance is," Resnick said. "Those are much less common and makes it hard to speculate on what caused that case. "
Moncure, a small, unincorporated community 31 miles southwest of Raleigh, had a population of 711, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
The area is home to farms, forests and the Moncure megasite, designated for future manufacturing, as well as Duke Energy's Cape Fear Plant and other industry. The modest brick and wood homes where the most of the killings took place share a driveway and sit within a few hundred yards of each other across the street from the Rays.
Two family members _ Ellis Mansfield and Lisa Mansfield, who lived nearby _ were having Sunday dinner with Helen Mason when all three were killed, a neighbor said.
"Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the victims of this terrible tragedy," Sheriff Mike Roberson stated in the news release. "To lose any family member is devastating, but to lose several at once to unexpected violence is unimaginable."
Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo bank nationwide to "Flatwood Boys Stay Strong," a care fund to help provide for the two surviving teenage sons who lost their parents in the shooting.
The Sheriff's Office is also encouraging community members to seek emotional support, including from the N.C. Victim Assistance Network, Triangle Survivors of Suicide, or the Sheriff's Office Victim Services Unit.
Roberson said he wants people to know they are not alone.
"In Chatham County, when one of us hurts, we all hurt, and we pull together," he stated. "We can't undo what has happened, but we can surround this family and each other with love and support as we decide where to go from here."
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(News & Observer staff writer Mark Schultz contributed to this story.)
