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

[DC]

People would rather think about and post comments to the pathetic Bruno.

[plaidsportcoat]

THe USA - what a WONDERFUL country!

[rangermac]

People are slaughtered the world over. Children are abused throughout Europe. An entire town in France was caught running a child porn operation. Men and women are stoned to death daily in the middle east for the crime of being alone together in the same room with a closed door. There are plenty of reasons to single out the US as hypocritical when compared to the rest of the world when looking at our supposed values versus our actions, but to sarcastically intimate that this crime sets us apart from the rest of the world just shows how knee-jerk, jaded you are. It says nothing about the US.

[XCITIZEN]

Thanks for adding your comment. And I pray that the kids will get through this somehow, even though there is a high likelihood some bitter atheist commenter will reply to my comment with 'Oh, how nice, you believe in an imaginary being in the clouds...'

[chicagominx]

So horrible. They sounded like wonderful people.

[Boadicea]

Hard to know what to say. It's so sad.

Certainly sounds like a robbery attempt.

[clearlythinking]

Senseless crime. Will keep the children in my thoughts and prayers. So tragic.

[cultkicker]

What kind of sick sob would do this to these wonderful people... GOD we live in a diseased world.

[BlackMagicWoman]

My sympathy to the family.

[Alvarofms]

What a despicable act to take the lives of people with some much love in their hearts.
God bless Mrs & Mr Billings and protect those children left behind.

[plaidsportcoat]

If there was a god that cared it would never have happened

[XCITIZEN]

Why don't you get a life?

[XCITIZEN]

Ok, now I see from reading the remainder of your comments - you show clear signs of having a personality disorder. But you're not excused.

[godsense2]

Ya and nobody would ever die when it's inconvenient either.

There is a God who cares, but there's also Satan who revels in this sort of depravity. And when he darkens a heart to this extreme, the free will God gives us sometimes results in horrific behavior.

[syd3]

My family's condolences to the many layers of family and friends associated with this couple and their children. Am very much hoping that Huff Post will continue to inform us readers as to developments in this case.

[Ajita]

Wow. What kind of person could hate someone as self-less as these people? I just don't understand.

[jackything]

There is no god...

[kwinter]

What's that got to do with it?

[Matt7]

So few comments for such a horrifying story.

In some ways, that is a good thing. It means to me that there are still some things so horrific, so senseless that the ignorant, the rude, and the glib are at a loss for words, and choose to take a pass.

May the souls of this couple rest in peace, and prayerfully, the children will be well cared for in their parents' absence.

[blaharumph]

exactly.

[MAragon]

You just have to absorb this in silence for awhile. It's just horrible.

[NoblesseOblige]

This is sickening and sad on so many levels. My heart goes out to all the children being cared for by this loving couple.

[plaidsportcoat]

Your heart won't help - you need to open your wallets.

[XCITIZEN]

Yup, personality disorder. That has to be it. In fact, you have even named yourself after a piece of clothing..­..

[gorgol]

Demons walk the earth...I'­ve met some myself..lu­ckily I survived. This is beyond sickening.­..no words can describe it....

[Bitsko]

A sad story, but "investigators did not know who killed the wealthy couple..." Perhaps the operative word is "wealthy"?

[PAposter]

Perhaps, but there is no mention of a robbery...­they had a 15 passenger van, but didn't kidnap the children for ransom.

I would bet they know at least one of the kiIIers...­and this a personal matter.

[PDXTransplant]

Gawd humans make me sick.

[stormynite03]

truly.....­everything i hear everyday makes me more and more sad to be a part of the human race

[Alvarofms]

Couldn't agree with you more...

[TheShakes]

So what are you two saying, you'd rather be fish? You guys are talking as if this is the first tragic story you've ever heard.