Sheriff: 6 dead in campsite attack; man charged with murder

Authorities in Palestine, Texas have charged a man with murder for killing six people in a campsite attack over the weekend.

Family members of the six people killed at a campsite in Anderson County are telling their story for the first time.

The victims – four men, one woman and a child – were members of two families and were camping in Anderson county, Efe news reported.

Cynthia Johnson is believed to have hidden while the killings took place before managing to make her way to a main road and call 911.

Anderson County is in east Texas between Dallas and Houston. Hudson is not related to the victims, and there is no motive as of Monday afternoon for the murders. The rest of their party-three adults and one 6-year-old boy-were pulled from a pond on the suspect’s sprawling property at 1:15 p.m. Monday, Taylor said at a press conference the same day.

A few people who know Hudson say they noticed violent tendencies in the past. Taylor said there were no other suspects.

William Hudson, 33, was arrested on suspicion of all six murders that occurred on the campsite in Anderson County roughly 100 miles from Dallas over the weekend, according to Fox News.

Hudson was picked up several weeks ago for a separate assault, the sheriff said. The sheriff’s office said that additional charges against Hudson are expected. Johnson’s mother Cynthia Johnson suffered minor injuries and spent Sunday night in a county crisis center after alerting police that morning.

Carl and Cynthia Johnson relocated to Texas from ME after retiring, the Franklin Sun Journal reports. Their daughter Hannah had moved to the state to be closer to them.

Authorities haven’t released the victims’ names and ages, but Taylor said “a lot of them are family”.