Tragic Discovery: Mother and Two Children Found Bound and Deceased—Police Investigate Shocking Case

Authorities in Alabama are on the hunt for a suspect after a tragic incident in which a woman and her two teenage children were found tied up and murdered in their home overnight.

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch revealed during a press briefing that the victims, identified as 46-year-old Lisa Ferguson, her daughter Keziah Luker, 17, and her son Thomas Cordell, 12, were discovered dead on Monday morning. Notably, Luker was reportedly seven to eight months pregnant at the time.

The family was residing on Auble Moody Road in Wilmer, Alabama—a rural community approximately 25 miles northwest of Mobile and near the Mississippi state line—when the tragedy unfolded between Sunday night and early Monday.

According to Sheriff Burch, the father of Luker’s unborn child noticed her phone became active unexpectedly during the night. This information was shared during a news conference, broadcasted by Mobile CBS affiliate WKRG.

A relative of the victims went to their home to check on them and stumbled upon the horrific scene, Sheriff Burch stated. He described the scene as “brutal,” explaining that all three victims had their hands bound behind their backs with zip ties or flex cuffs. The mother had been stabbed, the 17-year-old had been shot, and the 12-year-old’s throat was slit, as was his mother’s.

All three victims were in separate rooms.

Officers were called at about 2:30 a.m., and they arrived and identified the three victims. The sheriff added that the home was “in disarray,” including open dresser drawers, and it appeared as if “someone was searching for something.”

The indications to law enforcement were that this was a “targeted” crime.

“They had a plan coming in to bring zip ties with them,” Burch continued. “To murder two children brutally, the 12-year-old was almost decapitated, and so it was a brutal scene, and you know, I hope and feel comfortable we’ll have this animal or animals off the streets soon.”

The sheriff said his office does “have some positive leads” in the case, and he acknowledged that it’s possible — if even likely — that there were multiple perpetrators as “it’d be hard for one individual to patrol three people at one time.”

He added that “we don’t suspect any kind of domestic, family type situation” as being responsible for the deaths. As for whether four homicide charges could be brought against the suspect or suspects due to the unborn child, Burch noted that the county’s district attorney’s office will make that decision.