Good to see they might already have some of the people responsible...
PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- Investigators have three suspects in custody, including two facing murder charges, in the investigation into the killings of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children.At a news conference Monday, one of the couple's grown children said the family does not know the suspects.
"We have no knowledge of them," said Ashley Markham, the biological daughter of Melanie Billings. "We just -- we want justice."
Billings and her husband, Byrd, had 17 children total, including many with special needs. Nine of them were at home when the couple was shot and killed Thursday night. Two suspects, Wayne Coldiron and Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., face murder charges, said Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan. Coldiron, 41, surrendered to investigators Sunday, and Gonzalez was arrested in neighboring Santa Rosa County on Sunday evening, Morgan said. Gonzalez's age was not immediately released.
The sheriff was announcing Coldiron's arrest to reporters when detectives informed him that Gonzalez was in custody. In addition, Gonzalez's father, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr., 56, has been arrested on evidence-tampering charges. He is accused of trying to disguise a red Dodge van that surveillance cameras captured leaving the slain couple's home.
Investigators had distributed images of the van, and its discovery Saturday was "the linchpin in this case," Morgan said. The elder Gonzalez "was covering damage and painting the van ... so that it would not be readily recognizable." Morgan said the "multifaceted" probe has become "a window into something bigger," with multiple motives and multiple suspects. But he released few details.
At Markham's news conference Monday, the family's attorney Crystal Spencer said there are "other arrests expected." Markham described her parents as having "only had love in their lives since the day they met 19 years ago. They knew they were soulmates." The two "chose a life that many people did not understand" when they adopted so many children, Markham said.
"They had a calling to adopt and love children that others did not see as normal." The couple viewed their children as "perfect, angels that God provided them with to love eternally," she said. In all, the couple had 17 children. Each parent had two biological children, and the rest were adopted, Markham said. The parents had no biological children together. Three of the children have died, including Markham's biological sister, she said.
"We know our parents are watching over us now, reunited with their three angels in heaven," she said. There is no sign that the children who were in the home were threatened directly at any point during Thursday night's shooting, Markham said. The children "are coping very well" and are being cared for, she said.
"They haven't asked too many questions," she said, noting that several have disabilities. "I don't know if it's a good thing, but they'll be able to get through it -- just not understanding." The children "will remain together, and will remain with family," Markham said. "Right now, I have to be strong," she said, adding that her mother's spirit "is here with me -- she'll get me through it. I have to be strong for the children, above and beyond everything else."
While there are special expenses for special-needs children, Markham said, "There's a plan in place, and we will make it work." Asked about a 2005 article suggesting Byrd Billings was wealthy, attorney Spencer said he was an entrepreneur, "wealthy in spirit and blessed materially."
While the investigation continues, the family is keeping the children's whereabouts a secret. The Billingses lived in Beulah, west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line
no kidding.