Police Make Arrest in Georgia Trailer Park Murders

Sept. 4, 2009— -- Police on Friday arrested Guy Heinze Jr., 22, in the murders of eight people, including seven of his family members, in a south Georgia mobile home.

Heinze was the one who called 911 dispatchers from the scene of the Aug. 29 beating murders. "My whole family is dead," he moaned into the phone. Barely coherent, he said he had arrived at the mobile home that morning to find family members dead and bleeding. He added, "It looks like they've been beaten to death, but I don't know, man."

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said at a news conference that two pieces of evidence had come to light late Friday afternoon that led to the arrest. "This is very much an ongoing investigation," he told reporters Friday night.

Doering said that the warrants were served to Heinze in jail. Earlier in the day, Heinze had been released on bond after being held for evidence tampering, lying to police and drug possession. That bond has since been revoked.

The chief declined to provide additional details about the evidence against Heinze or a possible motive. "There's not much more I can say," he said. "I know you have a lot questions."

Heinze was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the killings of seven family members, including his father, and a family friend. He was also charged with attempted murder in the assault of a three-year-old child, who is now in critical condition and "has improved some," the chief said.

"It's my understanding that there was physical and testimonialevidence," said Candice Temple, a spokeswoman for the Glynn County police, told the AP. Heinze is being held at the county detention center.

A phone message left for Heinze Jr.'s attorney, Ron Harrison,was not immediately returned Friday night, the AP reported.

The chilling 911 tape had cast some light on the murky details of the mass killing at the sleepy New Hope Plantation mobile home park.

Police first learned of the massacre when neighbor Margaret Orlinski made a 911 call Aug. 29, saying Heinze, who was "freaking out," apparently arrived home to that gruesome tableau. "He says everybody is dead."

In the recording, Orlinski coaxes Heinze to the phone. Whimpering, he relays that "my whole family is dead," and rushes back into the trailer.

Later he yells back that the ambulance "better hurry," because his cousin, Michael Toler, a 19 year-old man with Down syndrome, was alive, but "that his face is smashed in."

Neighbors, including the mobile home park's maintenance man, are overheard responding to the commotion.

After taking the phone from Heinze, neighbor Orlinski tells the dispatcher, "I know there's a little baby. ... Shoot, there's a little baby. I don't know if the baby was in there or not."

The victims ranged from teenagers to people in their 40s. The dead included the suspect's father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45; his uncle, Rusty Toler Sr., 44; and his aunt Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. Also slain were Toler Sr.'s four children - Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. Chrissy Toler's boyfriend, Joseph L. West, 30, was also killed.

In the recording, the 911 dispatcher admonishes Heinze not to touch anything. Moments later Orlinski is overheard telling Heinze not to touch anything, "doorknobs or anything other that what you already touched… he says they were beat to death."

911 Tapes Released in Georgia Trailer Park Killings

But Heinze returns to the mobile home anyway and apparently finds two survivors. One of them, his cousin Michael Toler, died Aug. 30.

Police later charged Heinze with drug possession and making false statements to police. He is accused of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, tampering with evidence and obstruction of an officer, which is related to making false statements to police. He was released on bond, but rearrested Friday on the new murder charges.

"We have evidence he lied to us about the investigation and facts about it, and also he tampered with evidence from the crime scene," Doering said Aug. 30.

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 Investigation crime lab would determine the cause of death of the victims.

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 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."

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

New Hope, the trailer park where the bodies were found, is a 1,100-acre tract in a town just north of Brunswick, a port city about 100 miles north of Jacksonville.