Early Saturday investigators found the nine victims at a mobile home near the center of the New Hope Plantation trailer park. Police have yet to release many details in the case, including how the victims died or if any suspects are being questioned in the case.

“It’s not a scene that I would want anybody to see,” Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering told reporters. “There has not been such a number of victims, that I know of, in the history of this county.”

Doering said the victims ranged from a young age to “a very old age” and that no arrests have been made in the case.

When he was asked whether there was a killer on the loose, the police chief said only that area residents should be “vigiliant.”

“Always remain vigilant, always be mindful and if you hear something, you see something that’s obviously not conjecture, that somewhat direct that would be helpful, please call us,” Doering said.

Jimmy Durben, a director at the Glynn County Coroner’s Office, who was at the crime scene, told ABC News affiliate WJXX-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations crime lab will determine the cause of death of the seven people, because it was not immediately apparent.

He described the crime as brutal and called it “the worst crime scene I have ever witnessed in my 17-year history in the coroner’s office.”

“It’s normally pretty quiet around here,” a resident of the trailer park told WJXX-TV. “Everybody gets along … it’s a little disturbing.”

Another resident of New Hope, Lisa Vizcaino, told The Associated Press that the mobile home park and that it tends to be quiet.

“New Hope isn’t rundown or trashy at all,” Vizcaino said. “It’s the kind of place where you can actually leave your keys in the car and not worry about anything.”

She said that once news of the slayings spread around the trailer park, everybody was “pretty much on lockdown.”

“Everybody had pretty much stayed in their houses,” Vizcaino said. “Normally you would see kids outside.”

Police were working on leads to identify a suspects, the chief said. The two injured victims were listed in critical condition at a Savannah hospital, according to investigators.

About 20 detectives have been assigned to the case and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation, Doering said.

source: abcnews.go.com

.

Watch video below..

Don says at around 9 AM on the 15th, he noticed the Mercedes and then saw a silver, 4-door sedan parked next to it. Randall says he walked inside the building and returned to the lot somewhere between 30 – 60 minutes later and the silver car was gone.

source: tmz.com

.

The manager of the motel where Ryan Jenkins hanged himself says he was found hanging from the coat rack behind the door and his feet were touching the ground.

Residents of the motel (it’s used for sober living) tell TMZ Jenkins, who walked around the grounds from time to time, looked nothing like the video and pictures that have been circulating. He was skinny, his cheeks were sunken and he was wearing clothes that looked like he purchased them at a thrift store.

As for the mystery woman who accompanied him, she was very pretty, between 20-25 years old and was “extremely calm” when she checked in. The manager says he was a bit suspicious when they first pulled up in a PT Cruiser. The car pulled up — ironically — next to a dumpster rather than in a parking spot. He waited in the car while she checked him in. She left 20 minutes after Jenkins checked in and has not been seen again.

UPDATE: TMZ just spoke with the motel manager who said he did not see a suicide note when he discovered the body.

Officials have Jenkins’ laptop — but it’s unclear what was on it.

source: tmz.com

.

Ryan Jenkins was found dead in Canada yesterday — hanging from a coat rack in a motel room — but the investigation into the murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore, continues.

Authorities in Canada are looking for the woman who allegedly drove Jenkins to the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, B.C. on Thursday and checked him in. The manager of the motel says she was in her early 20s and drove a silver PT Cruiser with Alberta license plates.

The woman stayed with Jenkins for about 20 minutes and wasn’t seen again. The woman paid upfront for three days — in cash. The manager claims he never got a good look at Jenkins because he waited in the car while the mystery blond checked him in.

source: tmz.com

.

*Police were at scene for further investigation

UPDATE: TMZ spoke with the manager of the motel and one of the residents. They say Jenkins checked in on Friday. He was dropped off by a woman in her early 20s who drove a silver PT Cruiser with Alberta license plates. She stayed for about 20 minutes and wasn’t seen again. The room was paid for two days. When Jenkins didn’t check it out today, the manager and his nephew went to check on him. When there was no answer, they entered the room and found Jenkins hanging by his belt from a coat rack. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

UPDATE: Lt. Steve Holliday of Buena Park PD addressed the press, saying, “The sadness of this is all is that Mr. Jenkins will not stand before an Orange County jury for his crime.”

UPDATE: His body was discovered at about 5:00 PM PT.

UPDATE: Jenkins was apparently ID’ed through fingerprints.

UPDATE: RCMP Sgt. Duncan Pound: “At this present time the investigation into the circumstances of his death is continuing, but preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life. Any further details will not be released at this time as this investigation remains in its infancy.”

Ryan Jenkins has been found dead in Canada, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

He was found dead in at Thunderbird Motel in Hope, B.C. of an apparent suicide, according to RCMP Sgt. Duncan Pound.

Jenkins’ body was discovered by motel staff. According to law enforcement sources, he was found hanging.

Jenkins was charged on August 20 in the murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore.

Fiore’s mutilated body was found in a suitcase inside of a dumpster in Buena Park, Calif. on August 15.

Story developing … stay tune to toptodaynews.com for updates

source: tmz.com

.

Jenkins posted the video on his MySpace page on August 6. Law enforcement believes he strangled Fiore on August 14.

see photos below..

Jenkins also posted this video to MySpace at the same time. Once again they are in Las Vegas, but Jasmine’s hair is blonde in the video — so it was probably taken a different time.

Photos:

source: tmz.com

.

Days after the fire, a teary-eyed Ratley told local media that love drove him to save their lives. “I might have lost everything physical, but I’ve still got my two most precious things,” Michael Ratley told CNN affiliate WJXT-TV at the time.

A month later, Effie Ratley was dead, bludgeoned with a hammer in a bedroom of her in-laws’ home, not far from the trailer’s ashes on a dirt road marked only with a black arrow on a wooden sign.

The man who was hailed as a hero for saving his wife was convicted in July of murdering her.

On Tuesday, a Nassau County Court jury in Yulee, Florida, said he should spend the rest of his life in prison for the crime. Circuit Judge Robert Foster sentenced the 25-year-old to life without possibility of parole.

What changed a heroic husband into a hammer-wielding wife killer?

During the trial, no motive was offered.

On January 27, 2007, with his parents downstairs watching TV with the door shut and his infant son in the other room, prosecutors said, Ratley put on a pair of thick black gloves, grabbed a heavy-duty hammer and went into the bedroom where his wife was lying down after taking some medication. He lifted the hammer and “savagely and brutally beat her on the head over and over” — at least seven times, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda.

During the trial, Ratley said he had nothing to do with the slaying. His defense lawyers argued that an intruder, who Ratley alleged attacked him in the barn the night before, was the culprit. But prosecutors said that was part of Ratley’s plan, setting up for a scenario in which an intruder killed his wife by cutting the wire on their window.

Testifying on Tuesday, his friends and family spoke of him as a church-going, gentle man who always went out of his way to help others — the elderly at a nursing home, a neighbor whose husband was slain and sick family members.

“He has always been a caring, nonviolent person,” said his mother, Cindy Ratley. “He’d give you the shirt off his back.” Cindy Ratley said it had been her dream to have her close-knit family living together on her secluded 20 acres.

Witnesses for Ratley tried in court to give a picture of the son, grandson, and friend they said he had always been, with the defense calling the murder a “single, horrible snapshot” in Ratley’s overwhelmingly positive life. They urged the jury to give Ratley’s son a chance to know his father, one who cares and loves deeply for him, they said.

As his mother and others left the witness stand in the packed and divided courtroom, they each told Ratley they stood behind him and loved him. As they walked back to sit down, many mouthed, “I love you.”

The prosecutors argued Ratley’s character couldn’t be clearer, based on his actions. “Unfortunately, the best example we have of his character is in what he did. This shows his best character,” de la Rionda said, showing the jurors gruesome photos of Effie Ratley’s injuries.

De la Rionda disputed the description of Ratley as a wonderful father. “This loving father had no problem whatsoever — a short distance from his son — exterminating the life of his son’s mother,” he said.

Michael Ratley met Effie Williams when she was having car trouble. He offered to buy a new tire for her and change it.

Effie Ratley, who enjoyed listening to ’50s music and watching black-and-white movies, was thrilled when she and her husband had their baby, her family told the court Tuesday.

“Her son was her pride and joy,” said her stepmother, Joy Williams, wearing a purple and pink “Justice for Effie” bracelet. “But she never knew more than six weeks of her motherhood dreams.”

By all accounts, the Ratleys’ relationship had its rocky points. They were married, separated and remarried.

Michael Ratley’s family said that the first time the couple got married, they were worried he wasn’t mature enough, that he needed to grow up, and they said the couple definitely had growing pains.

“He didn’t know if he could love her enough, because he only wanted the best for her,” Donna Stanley said, talking about her nephew.

Effie Ratley’s father, Duane Williams, cried on the stand Tuesday as he talked about his only daughter. His voice quivered as he tried to explain how he feels her loss each day.

“She’s the first thing I think about in the morning when I wake up,” he said, his voice wavering. “And the last thing before I go to bed.”

Neither Effie or Michael Ratley’s families wanted to speak about the sentencing after the hearing, but de la Rionda said Effie’s family was pleased with the result.
advertisement

“They were always hoping for [the] death [penalty], but they’re happy he’s going to get life and he’s not going to be able to get out,” de le Rionda said. “He’s going to die in prison.”

While the announcement of the sentence, which spared him from death, was greeted with a pronounced “Yes!” from Michael Ratley’s family inside court, the gravity of the situation seemed to hit during a short recess. His grandmother began sobbing. Family members comforted her until Cindy Ratley sat down next to her. The two cried and embraced for a couple of minutes. Michael Ratley looked over, saw his grandmother upset, and he, too, began to cry.

source:

.