Byrd And Melanie Billings, Fla. Couple Who Adopted 12 Children, Found Slain

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Investigators asked the public to be on the lookout Friday for a red van they believe carried three men involved in the deaths of a Florida Panhandle couple who were shot in their rural home while eight of their children slept.

Surveillance cameras showed the van at the home of Byrd and Melanie Billings in Beulah, a rural area west of Pensacola near the Alabama border, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. The children were unharmed.

The sheriff's office released an enhanced but still grainy photograph of a red, 15-passenger van dating to the late 70s or early 80s.

Morgan said investigators did not know who killed the wealthy couple known for adopting children with developmental disabilities, many born to drug-addicted mothers.

Investigators are also awaiting autopsy results on the couple to learn more about the killings, he added.

Morgan said eight of the children, ages 8 to 14, were in the home when the couple was killed Thursday evening. A woman who lives in an outlying building and helps care for the children called emergency dispatchers from the home.

Deputies had to wake some of the children after they arrived, authorities said.

Investigators interviewed the children, who are now staying with other family members, Morgan said.

The Billings had 16 children, 12 of them adopted. They married 18 years ago and each had two children from previous marriages. The couple then began adopting children with developmental disabilities and other problems.

The couple owned several local businesses, including a finance company and a used car dealership.

In a 2005 story in the Pensacola News Journal, the couple said they wanted to share their wealth with children in need, but didn't imagine their family would grow so large.

"It just happened," Melanie Byrd told the newspaper. "I just wanted to give them a better life."

Comments

[rextrek]

well good luck findiing homes for these kids.....as they are NOT "perfect"per say - and so many people who adopt want a perfect child........tho,LGBT people tend to adopt kids with "special"needs....those Fla. doesn't ällow"LGBT people to adopt....

[iSeeDumbPeople]

I'd start looking for leads through the "finance company"; assuming they aren't in fact talking about a payday lending business.

[UncleJimbo]

Proof of the randomness of the universe! And proof that there is no invisible man in the sky! truly a sad happening!

[yellowdoggie]

This sad and senseless act "proves' nothing except that there are sad and senseless acts in our world.

[filo]

...and senseless people.

[HarrietteTheSpy]

I'm speechless. I pray for the children.

[KOisGod]

WHY??!!

[CynAnne]

How awful and unfair..Byrd & Melanie Billings were trying to help children who were in need, and who now are again orphaned, because of senseless violence of the most cowardly nature (to murder people, as they sleep..reprehensible). I hope the remainder of the Billings family can help keep the children together (and hopefully legal arrangements, i.e., 'living wills', were at the ready), and that the subhumans who murdered the Billings are caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law..

[ZimboChick]

so sad. haaaaa this world!!

[yerachm]

I can't get any more absurd than that.

[CR46]

What a horrible senseless act that will affect these poor kiddos for the rest of their lives. I hope the murder(s) are caught convicted and are given the hardest sentence possible. To their family and friends my deepest sympathies are with you.

[temashana]

why is it the good ones are always taken first?

[filo]

Because the bad ones are doing the taking.

[ashleelisbeth]

This has to be one of most horrid stories I've come across in a while. I hope the killers are found and prosecuted to the utmost and fullest extent.

[Freesia2]

So terribly sad. And so pointess.

I hope the children can be placed together or at least near each other. Maybe the will provides for something like that? That would be good to hear.

Sympathies to their families and friends. The Billing sound like people who would have been easy to care about and hard to lose.

[tora]

I just don't understand how life can be so tragic and unfair. What will happen to these children now?

[RationalMuscle]

This is just staggering. I agree with Happylib: The vast majority of people 'are' good, and while I do not believe in prayer, my thoughts go out to these poor kids. Perhaps they had a taste of a better life, if only for a short while.

One thing is for sure: The world needs more people like Byrd and Melanie Billings.

[Rangergirl]

What a tragedy...Who will care for the children now? I hope they get the creeps that did this to this family....They should get the death penalty for what they have done.