Police hold 911 caller in Brunswick slayings

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Guy Heinze Jr. (Source: Glynn County Police)

By WTOC staff

BRUNSWICK, GA (WTOC) - Glynn County police have confirmed that they are holding the person who called 911 Saturday after discovering the victims at the New Hope Plantation mobile home park, located just off US Highway 17 near the Howfyl-Plantation Historic Site.

Glynn County police chief Matthew Doering said at a 9am Sunday news conference that police are holding 22-year-old Guy Heinze Jr. in the county jail on obstruction, tampering with evidence and a multiple drug charges. However, Doering would not say if Heinze Jr. was a suspect.

In a news conference Saturday, Doering said authorities discovered the victims after a family member called 911 shortly after 8am that morning. But at the news conference Sunday, Doering did not comment on the relationship Heinze Jr. had with any of the victims.

Chief Doering also would not release the names and ages of the seven victims or the identities of the two surviving victims at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah.

Doering did say that the victims found in the trailer were not suspected of taking part in the murders.

He also confirmed that police have expanded their search for clues as far as two miles from the scene.

Doering also stated that police have leads and went on to say that police do believe they know the motive. But when asked what the motive was, Doering refused to comment.

By 6pm Saturday, investigators had removed all the bodies from the crime scene and taken them to a local morgue.

Autopsies began at 7:30am Sunday at the Georgia Crime Lab in Savannah with Glynn County Police investigators in attendance, but it is not known when those results will be released.

At a 9pm news conference Saturday night, Chief Doering told WTOC the first phase of their investigation was complete on the scene. They are now finishing the ID process and notifying next of kin.

The ages among the wounded and dead range from young to middle-aged, though police would not give exact ages. The youngest victims were taken to Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and are in critical condition.

"I know it's more difficult when you're dealing with a child because you take away their innocence," explained Chief Doering. "As we know about the Barrios case, who was 6-years-old."

Christopher Barrios Jr. was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered in Brunswick in March, 2007.

One of the residents who spoke to WTOC said that she was shocked and scared to be anywhere near the scene of Saturday's murders, but since police were there, she guessed she'd be okay.

A string of violence

Saturday's murders marks the end of a violent eight days in Glynn County.

On August 21, police say Javier Robledo was gunned down during an attempted armed robbery. Three suspects have been charged in connection with Robledo's death.

Within five hours of that murder, another man, Jeffery Pennington, was shot to death inside a restaurant.

Police have also charged a man with that murder.

During the 5pm news conference Saturday, Chief Doering referenced those incidents.

"As all of you probably know by now just last week we had two back to back homicides within probably five hours of each other," Doering said. "When it's one victim or more, it still goes to the heart of the issue and it goes back to what I said earlier. It's about you and your family. It doesn't matter if it's one; it doesn't matter what the age is."