PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man will leave Thursday for Georgia to bury his son killed in an unsolved mass murder in a mobile home Saturday, while his grandson remains under arrest.
William Heinze, 72, is the father of Guy Heinze Sr., 45, one of the eight family members found murdered in Brunswick, Ga.
He is also the grandfather of Guy Heinze Jr., 22, who reported the slayings to police and who is now in custody, arrested on investigation of tampering with evidence and lying to police about his whereabouts prior to the killings.
“I guess he’s doing as well as he can be doing,” said Diane Heinze, William’s wife and Guy Heinze Sr.’s stepmother, of her husband.
William Heinze had declined to speak to the Peninsula Daily News on Tuesday. His wife said that a barrage of national reporters, including reporters with CNN, had called their residence.
Instead, he went to work at 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn on Tuesday to “get his mind on something” other than the tragedy, she said.
Soon after the killings, First Coast News of Jacksonville, Fla., interviewed him.
“I just can’t stop crying and shaking,” First Coast reported he said. “It just hit me so heavy because we really loved Guy, everybody loved Guy.”
Guy Heinze Jr. called 9-1-1 to report finding seven people slain, with at least two others injured, when he returned home Saturday morning. One has since died of injuries suffered that night.
‘My whole family’s dead’
“I just got home,” a man identified as Guy Heinze Jr., told the emergency dispatcher in the 12-minute call, released Monday.
“I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody’s dead . . . My whole family’s dead. It looks like they’ve been beaten to death.
“My dad, my mom, my uncle, my cousin . . . My dad, he’s laying there dead,” he said. “That was my dad.”
Guy Heinze Jr. was arrested late Saturday on investigation of illegal possession of prescription drugs and marijuana, tampering with evidence and making false statements to police.
No suspect has been named in the killings.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said he isn’t calling Guy Heinze Jr. a suspect in the killings but isn’t ruling him out.
“My client believes the killer is still on the loose,” said attorney Ron Harrison, who said Guy Heinze Jr. is cooperating with police.
Guy Heinze Jr. is scheduled for court today.
An arrest warrant said he provided “investigators with false and misleading information about his whereabouts and involvement in the circumstances leading up to him calling 9-1-1 to report the deaths of his family members,” CNN reported.
The arrest warrant also said that he removed a shotgun from the residence and hid it in the trunk of his car, CNN said.
Extended family
The eight people slain were members of an extended family, Georgia police say.
The couple hasn’t has adequate time to process the gravity of the tragedy, Diane Heinze said.
“It’s just now kind of hitting home,” she said.
They plan to fly to Georgia on Thursday to attend the funeral on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Diane and her husband moved to the Port Angeles area in 2005.
She said her stepson was born and raised in Illinois, moved to Georgia, and became a truck driver. He had two children, she said.
Georgia police released the names and ages of the dead three days after the carnage was reported in Heinze Jr.’s frantic 911 call.
The dead included Guy Heinze Sr.’s good friend Russell (Rusty) Toler Sr., 44, and his four children: Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15.
Also killed were Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, and Joseph L. West, 30. Falagan was identified by a funeral home as Toler Sr.’s sister. West’s connection to the family was not known.
One survivor remains in critical condition.
Kathy Clock, administrative assistant to Joseph Iannicelli, who owns the New Hope Plantation mobile home park, said not all nine of the victims lived in Toler Sr.’s small trailer, but all stayed there at times. They were planning to move because they needed more space.
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The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com
