Seven people in custody in slaying of Fla. couple

Authorities in the Florida Panhandle said they have seven people in custody in the slayings of a wealthy couple known for adopting special-needs children.

Melanie and Byrd Billings were shot to death in their home near Pensacola on Thursday night.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan told their daughter, Ashley Markham, at a press conference Tuesday that investigators have found the people responsible for killing her parents.

"It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, and your family, we have found them and they are in custody," Morgan said.

Morgan said investigators are still looking for at least one more person in the case. He said at least one of the suspects in custody may have done work at the Billings' home.

Prosecutor Bill Eddins said the primary motive was robbery. A safe was one of the items taken from the home, he said, declining to describe the other items.

Earlier, Morgan told ABC's Good Morning America that authorities had tied at least seven people to the crime but that nothing links any of the suspects to the family directly.

Four arrests were earlier identified by police, including a father and son. Leonard Gonzalez II, 35, and Wayne Coldiron, 41, are charged with murder and home invasion. Gary Sumner, 30, is charged with murder, and Leonard Gonzalez Sr., 56, is charged with evidence tampering for allegedly painting over damage on a van videotaped by a security camera at the Billings' house Thursday. His neighbors alerted police after a description of the van was publicized.

Three more people were arrested Tuesday — a juvenile whom police did not identify; Frederick Thorton Jr., 19; and Donnie Ray Stallworth, 28, who was arrested in Alabama but lives in Florida.

Byrd and Melanie Billings were shot to death Thursday night after a home invasion and robbery, Morgan said at a news conference Monday. Nine of their children were in the house but were unharmed, he said.

"Mr. Billings was well-to-do. He was an entrepreneur and he opened his home to the community. You are asking me to speculate on a motive. That could have been one reason," Morgan said, likening the killings to the 1959 slayings of a Kansas farm family. In that case, chronicled by Truman Capote in the book In Cold Blood, the killers mistakenly believed the prosperous family kept a safe full of cash at home.

When asked if the Billings kept much money at their home, Morgan replied, "That has not been verified."

The investigation has police scrolling through MySpace, the social-networking website, and scanning surveillance tapes from a Wal-Mart where they suspect the men bought the clothing and gear they used in the crime.

"It seems each phase we complete in this investigation, we answer a set of questions, and it opens up another set of questions," Morgan said. "The complexity of it is amazing."

He said investigators are following various leads. Morgan would not elaborate.

Morgan said he sees no connection between the killings and a MySpace profile in the name of the younger Gonzalez in which the writer refers to a daughter he says was taken from him. The profile was updated just after midnight Thursday, the day the Billingses were found dead in their rural Beulah home, 17 miles from Pensacola on the Gulf Coast.

The update said: "Making a move for humanity."

The Billingses had been married 18 years and saw their life's work in adopting children, said their daughter, Ashley Markham, 26.

Each had two children when they married. They adopted 13 children who had been abused or neglected, or had physical or developmental disabilities, Markham said. "They chose a life that many people did not understand," she said. "They had a calling to adopt and to provide love to children that most did not see as normal. To my mom and dad, their children are perfect."

The family have planned a visitation for Thursday night and a funeral Friday, family attorney Crystal Collins Spencer said.

The couple were known for philanthropy and as the owners of several businesses, including a car dealership.The nine children who lived at home and were in the house when the killings occurred are staying with relatives. Markham would not say where.

Three of the children saw the intruders, Morgan said. One ran out of the house when the assailants left and alerted a neighbor, who called police, Morgan said.

Surveillance cameras captured the intruders' movements and images of a van four of the men arrived and fled in.The elder Gonzalez told police he drove the van, according to an arrest warrant.

Morgan said the operation was conducted with precision: The men parked their vehicles. Three entered through the front door and two or three more through a rear door. At one point, as many as five men in black clothing and masks, at least two carrying guns, moved through the nine-bedroom two-story house. They were out in less than 10 minutes.

Morgan called the slayings "chilling." "It leads me to believe this was a very well-planned and methodical operation."