HANCOCK COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
Bay St. Louis Assistant Police Chief Christine Johnson released the names of the three murder victims and the man who slipped off the cell tower on Saturday.
Johnson said the three people found dead in a home on the corner of Citizen Street and Old Spanish Trail in Bay St. Louis are Wilton Bernard Jr., 69, Jeanie Bernard, 66 and Kathleen Deese, 51. Johnson said the man who slipped from a cell tower in Waveland is 46-year-old Anthony C. Garrett. Garrett was listed under the Mississippi Sex Offender Registry.
Officials said Wilton Bernard Jr. and Jeanie Bernard are husband and wife. Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk said he is working to notify the next of kin for two other people who died violently the very same day in the county. The law prohibits the release of the names of the dead to the public until the closest relative is notified.
Police said they believe Garrett is responsible for killing the Bernards and Deese in a domestic dispute.
Garrett's relatives told WLOX that the three people found dead in the home were Garrett's mother, stepfather and girlfriend. Relatives also say the man previously spent 23 years in prison and was just released. Officials are describing the scene of the triple murder as "A bloody mess".
Witnesses on the scene at the cell tower said Garrett was yelling profanities and acting erratically. Before he went up the tower he allegedly said that he had killed his entire family, witnesses said.
Officials tell WLOX that officers tried to talk the man down when he apparently slipped 300 feet to his death.
In another incident, Waveland police said, around 9:30 p.m., a call came in about a shooting on Kiln-Waveland Cutoff Road. Officers found a man shot to death in front of a home. Hancock County Sheriff's officials are investigating this case.
However, an arrest has been made in another shooting. Hancock County deputies have charged Virginia Hill, 37, of the Kiln with the murder of a man she was living with on Orchid Street. Authorities said the man died of apparent gunshot wound to the head. Her first court appearance is Monday.
If you have any information, please call the Hancock County Sheriff's Department at (228) 466-6900 or (228) 255-9191.
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Anthony C. Garrett. Image source: MS Sex Offender Registry.
