Authorities have arrested a 30-year-old Tennessee man in connection with the killing of six people — five in Tennessee and one in neighboring Alabama.
Jacob Shaffer of Fayetteville was arrested Saturday after three people were found dead at a house in the town, 90 miles south of Nashville. Two other victims were found in another residence on the same street, South Lincoln Road, officials said. About 30 miles away in Huntsville, Alabama, a sixth person was found dead at a business, authorities said. Shaffer was in one of the Fayetteville residences when Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies arrived, authorities said. Some of the five victims are related, and the people were killed either Friday night or early Saturday, said Kristin Helm of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Officials said the killings were related to a domestic dispute, but she did not elaborate. Lincoln County Sheriff Murray Blackwelder called the slayings “one of the worst crimes Lincoln County has ever seen.” He didn’t describe how the victims died.
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It was not immediately clear when or how the victim in Huntsville was killed either. “We have no clue yet as to what unfolded there and how it relates to here,” said Huntsville police Sgt. Mickey Allen. Among the victims were two juveniles, authorities said. Investigators have not released the names of any of the victims and are working to first notify family members. Without naming Shaffer, Allen said Tennessee authorities told him a man confessed to a slaying in his town and to five other killings in Fayetteville.
