Dakota Theriot, a man suspected of killing his parents and three other people including a girl he was dating, was arrested Sunday at his grandmother’s house in Virginia.
GONZALES, La. — A 21-year-old man suspected of killing his parents and three other people — including a girl he was dating — was arrested Sunday when he drove up with a gun to his grandmother’s house in Virginia, a sheriff said.
On Saturday, Dakota Theriot shot and killed three people — the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father — in Louisiana’s Livingston Parish before taking her father’s pickup truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents, according to authorities.
Theriot’s grandmother in Warsaw, Virginia, had checked into a hotel Saturday night, fearing he might show up there, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B. Smith said in a phone interview. The woman asked authorities to check her house Sunday morning to ensure it was safe before she returned.
While deputies were there, Smith said, Theriot drove up with a firearm pointed out the window of a pickup. A sheriff’s statement said deputies sought cover and challenged Theriot, who then dropped the gun and was arrested without incident. Smith said the pickup Theriot drove apparently was the one taken in Louisiana.
In Louisiana, at a trailer where the suspect’s parents lived, drops of blood trailed out to the front steps from the bedroom where Keith and Elizabeth Theriot were shot. In the bedroom, blood-soaked pillows were strewn on a bed, and patches of what appeared to be dried blood were on the floor. Dozens of stuffed animals decorated the room.
Kim Mincks and Jacob Chastant also lived in the trailer and were friends with the Theriots.
