ARLINGTON, Texas — A man suspected of killing five people kept the deaths of his father and sister a secret for 11 months by telling neighbors they were caring for sick relatives.
Terry Lee Hankins, 26, took over his father's towing and automotive business, and neighbors were satisfied with his explanations until Hankins was charged Thursday in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife and two children.
Acting on his statement, police on Friday then found the body of Ernie L. Hankins, 75, in his mobile home, where he'd been dead since October. A second body, wrapped in plastic in the front seat of a car in an auto storage lot, was also found.
According to an affidavit, Hankins told police that on Oct. 1, he became angry with his sister and hit her several times in the back of the head with a car jack.
A week later, during an argument with Ernie Hankins, his father brandished a .45-caliber pistol in anger. Terry Lee Hankins took the gun away and fired.
After an armed standoff with police Thursday, Hankins was charged with capital murder in the deaths of his estranged wife, 34-year-old Tammy Hankins, her son, Kevin Galley, 13, and her daughter, Ashley Mason, 11, all shot to death in their mobile home in Mansfield, south of Fort Worth.
Bob Chester, owner of Bob Chester's Auto Service, said the car in which the woman's body was found had been parked in the same spot for four years.
"It was blocked by about 30 cars, and nobody ever went back there," he said.