SHERIDAN, Ill. (WLS) — A day long manhunt ended Thursday, after a double murder and house fire in the village of Sheridan in LaSalle County.

Investigators are interviewing the 45-year-old suspect to figure out why the tragedy happened.

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Autopsies are scheduled for Friday for the two victims, whose identities have not been released.

After an hours long extensive man hunt LaSalle County Sheriff’s Office say Ronald Martin of Sheridan is now in police custody.

The 45-year-old was found hiding in the brush on his family’s property in rural La Salle about 30 miles away from where the crime scene.

“We obtained a search warrant for a property over in LaSalle on East 3rd Road,” LaSalle County Undersheriff David Ortiz said. “They had vehicles, there was trailers buildings on this property owned by the Martin family. We found the suspect hiding when he was taken into custody without incident.”

Martin now faces six counts of murder charges

Sheriff’s deputies said this all unfolded after two people were found dead at this home in Sheridan

Just after 1 a.m. Thursday police got reports of shots fired and later reports about a fire at the home. Once the fire was out, police found the two victims.

Sheriff’s deputies said two other people said they escaped, one was injured by shrapnel.
Investigators said Martin drove away in a red Dodge Ram pickup truck. But they tracked him down to a large lot owned by his family, with help from U.S. Marshals and Illinois State Police.

“With the help of air ops, which is the Illinois State Police plane, basically, up in the sky we were able to locate his vehicle on the property,” Undersheriff Ortiz said.

Still, there are many unanswered questions and mounting heartbreak for the families of the victims.