3 killings rattle Arkadelphia

LITTLE ROCK — Authorities found a man and his two young stepdaughters dead inside their home in Arkadelphia on Thursday night.

The man’s 6-month-old baby, who authorities also found at the 11th Street residence, was unharmed, the Arkansas State Police said.

State police identified the victims as 40-year-old Bobby Jean Galbraith, 6-year-old Adiele Crutchfield and 4-year-old Marley Crutchfield. The children were sisters, according to state police.

No arrests had been made late Friday evening.

Officials released little other information as the investigation by the state police, the Arkadelphia Police Department and the Clark County sheriff’s office continued Friday evening. Autopsies were under way Friday afternoon at the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock, state police said.

Col. Stan Witt, director of the Arkansas State Police, ordered his agency’s criminal investigators to “work nonstop to find the killer or killers,” state police said.

The killings shook Arkadelphia, a quiet college town dominated by Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University. Throughout the day Friday, many in the town of 10,714people talked about the murders.

“We aren’t known for bad things,” said Delisa Seale, who works in downtown Arkadelphia. “I didn’t know any of the families or their circumstances, but all we can do is offer our thoughts and prayers.

“It’s just a horrible feeling knowing that this happened in our city.”

Officers from the Arkadelphia Police Department found the bodies and the unharmed infant inside the home just after 8 p.m. Thursday, according to a department report.

Anna Marie Galbraith, 27 - Bobby Galbraith’s wife and the children’s mother - called 911 after finding the three dead, the report said.

Yellow police tape surrounded the one-story, white, wood-frame house as investigators made their way through red ribbons that lined the front porch landing.

Christmas decorations, including inflatable penguins and giant lollipops, stood in the yard.

Arkadelphia City Manager Jimmy Bolt called the murders “a tragedy.”

“You don’t want to see something like this happen, and our hearts and prayers go out to the family,” he said.

Greg Lathem, pastor of the Third Street Baptist Church at South Third and Crawford streets in Arkadelphia, has planned a community prayer vigil at the church from 4-8 p.m. on Monday.

“It’s time we join together and lift up our petitions to the only one who can heal our land, and that is the Lord,” Lathem wrote on a flier advertising the vigil.

At Perritt Primary School, where the children attended, the Arkadelphia School District assigned extra counseling staff. Additional counselors also worked at several other campuses Friday.

“Our greatest priority today is to provide a school environment that shelters our students from unnecessary exposure to details of this matter. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” said Sean Ruggles, communications director for the district, in a statement.

Thursday’s deaths mark the third, fourth and fifth homicides of the year in Arkadelphia, according to police.

Sunday night, 25-year-old Jerome Caldwell of Crossett was shot and killed outside Dino’s Main Street Cafe in the heart of downtown.

Jarvis Purifoy, 21, a former quarterback for the Arkadelphia High School football team, was arrested in connection with the killing. Police said Caldwell and Purifoy had been fighting.

Jackie Ochello, the owner of Dino’s, said the Sunday night killing was an isolated incident.

Patrons at her restaurant on Friday were “in shock” after learning about Thursday night’s slayings.

“We are a community where bad things like this don’t usually happen,” she said. “Everyone is going to be praying. It’s a terrible thing, but we are a strong community. We will just bathe ourselves in prayer.”Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.