SUMNER COUNTY, Tenn. — Seven people found dead in Sumner County over the weekend have been identified in what state investigators are calling the deadliest homicide event in Tennessee in at least 20 years.
Six people were found dead in one home, a seventh body was discovered at another home, and an eighth victim is in critical condition at the hospital, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Monday.
Michael Cummins, 25, was taken into custody in connection with the case Saturday night. TBI agents initially found five bodies at two separate homicide scenes in Sumner County around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, four were found at a home on the 1100 block of Charles Brown Road and a fifth body was found at home on the 1500 block of Luby Brown Road a short time later.
TBI said forensic scientists processing the scene on Charles Brown Road found a sixth body in the home on Charles Brown Road which brought the total to seven deaths and one critically wounded.
The TBI released the victim's names Monday.
At the home on Charles Brown Road, investigators said Cummins' father, David Carl Cummins, and mother Clara Jane Cummins were found dead. His uncle Charles Edward was also killed.
A woman named Rachel Dawn McGlothlin-Pee, her mother Marsha Elizabeth Nuckols, and her daughter Sapphire McGlothlin-Pee were also found dead in the home but TBI investigators said their relationships to Cummins were unclear.
A woman named Shirley D. Fehrle was found at the home on Lubey Brown Road and her relationship to Cummins was also unknown, according to the TBI.
An eighth victim, whose identity has not been released, remains in critical condition.
"We should keep them in our thoughts, our prayers as we work together to bring justices," TBI Director David Rausch said at the beginning of the news conference Monday.
TBI sent over 100 law enforcement officials to look for Cummins over the weekend, TBI spokesperson Josh DeVine said. Tennessee Highway Patrol and Sumner County authorities were also participating in that search.
"I want to thank our partners," Rausch said.
He said the excellent partnership of local authorities allowed for seamless, amazing teamwork.
During the search, TBI said it used its aircraft and found evidence of an individual in a creek bed around one mile from the first scene. More than a dozen law enforcement officers from the county’s joint SWAT Team went to that location, where they found Cummins.
According to TBI, the situation escalated and at least one officer fired, striking Cummins. Medics transported him to a local hospital for treatment with wounds that were not immediately believed to be life-threatening.
Cummins remained hospitalized as of noon Monday and the TBI said he has not been formally charged but when he is in the condition to be released from medical care, he will be taken into custody.
No law enforcement officers were hurt in the arrest effort, according to TBI.
At the news conference Monday, Rausch said the scene was not only complex but horrific.
"Gruesome is how I would describe it," Rausch said.
He said the impact it will have on first responders is long-lasting so they're working to bring in specialists to help the team psychologically.
Scientists will have to come back in and work on the evidence, the bureau said.
The District Attorney of the area that includes Sumner County, Ray Whitley, said he's never seen anything this bad.
"I've had a long career in prosecution, this is one of the most horrific that I've had to deal with."