A former Maine resident was reportedly among the six people killed while camping near Tennessee Colony, Texas, on Saturday night. A suspect was arrested and charged with murder.

KLTV, a television station based in Tyler, Texas, reported that the bodies of Carl Johnson, 77, and his adult daughter, Hannah Johnson, were found Sunday morning in a camping trailer. Police said it appears they were shot.

Carl Johnson and his wife, Cynthia Johnson, were former employees of the University of Maine at Farmington and retired to Texas, according to the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston.

The television station also reported that the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office discovered the bodies of four other people in a pond outside the suspect’s house on Monday afternoon. It’s not clear how they died.

KLTV said that Hannah Johnson’s 6-year-old son, Kade Johnson, and her boyfriend, Thomas Kamp, were found in the pond along with Kamp’s two oldest children.

The only person who survived the ordeal was Cynthia Johnson, according to KLTV.

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During a news conference Monday afternoon, Sheriff Greg Taylor confirmed that the bodies of a man and a woman were found in a camper on the property early Sunday morning.

Taylor did not identify the victims found in the trailer or the pond.

Taylor said the “sole survivor” was injured in the attack and had been interviewed extensively by the district attorney. She stayed overnight in the county’s crisis center, he said.

During the news conference, Taylor confirmed that his officers arrested William Hudson, 33, and charged him with one count of murder. He is being held on a $2.5 million bond, according to the sheriff’s department.

No motive has been released. Police do not believe that Hudson knew the victims.

Police believe that Hudson acted alone and said he has a previous record of violent behavior.

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Taylor told reporters that the killings were the largest mass murder he has ever seen.

The group of seven people were camping on private property between Tennessee Colony and the Harmony Community, in southeast Texas.

Taylor said deputies were called to the campsite just before 7 a.m. Sunday, after the sole survivor made her way to a main road and called 911.

A family friend of the Johnson family told the Sun Journal that Hannah Johnson and Kamp bought the property where they were killed. The couple lived in Midlothian, Texas, about 100 miles from where they were camping.

Taylor said that Anderson County investigators, police in Palestine, Texas, and Texas Rangers investigated the slayings.

The Johnsons’ son, Erik, is owner of Sandy River Farms in Farmington.

The Associated Press and Portland Press Herald Staff Writer Dennis Hoey contributed to this report.


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