PENSACOLA, Fla. (July 16) - Investigators say they've found a safe stolen from a Florida couple's home during a deadly break-in last week.
State Attorney Bill Eddins said Thursday that investigators have also found several guns and believe at least one of them was used to kill Melanie and Byrd Billings.
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More Coverage: Sheriff Becomes Face of Murder Investigation
The couple was known for adopting children with special needs. Surveillance cameras captured footage of masked men — some dressed as ninjas — slipping into front and back doors of their home.
Eight people have been charged — seven with murder and one with being an accessory after the fact.
Eddins would not say what was in the safe or where it or the guns were found. He says the case is mostly wrapped up. But Sheriff David Morgan says investigators are still looking for people they want to interview.
Police on Wednesday arrested an eighth suspect, 47-year-old Pamela Long Wiggins, charging her with accessory after the fact to felony murder, Morgan said. Seven others have also been charged in the killings.
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Morgan said the men spent 30 days training for what was a precisely executed break-in, save for the failure to turn off the couple's camera system. Before the crime, the extensive surveillance system was used to monitor the children.
"The execution was basically flawless," Morgan said. "The one gaping hole that would not have made this a perfect operation, if you will, was the fact that the surveillance system was not disabled. I guess the question was why was it not?"
Morgan said an accomplice was assigned to turn off the cameras, possibly remotely, but never did — and the men who broke in apparently didn't know that. Morgan said authorities are looking for another person of interest who may have been the one assigned to turn off the system, though he did not identify that person.
The surveillance videos led investigators to a red van used as a used as a getaway car and eventually to the suspects, a loosely connected group of mostly day laborers who knew each other through a power washing business and an auto detailing operation.
They were in the nine-bedroom house for just four minutes and on the property for 10, Morgan said.
Morgan said the suspects took a safe from the house, though he would not say what was in it or what else was taken. Authorities have said the main motive was robbery, though there may have been others.
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He said earlier that Wiggins is a friend and landlord to 35-year-old Leonard Gonzalez Jr., whom Morgan described as a "pivotal person" in organizing the break-in. Gonzalez, who's charged with murder, proclaimed his innocence in court Tuesday.
Eddins said the day before Wiggins' arrest that he will ask a grand jury to indict the suspects on first-degree murder charges. The male suspects range in age from 16 to 56.
David Melenkevitz, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said his agency is assisting with the investigation but would not comment further. He said Escambia County officials have also sought help from other federal agencies including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Nine of the couple's 13 adopted children were home during the break-in. Three saw the intruders but were not hurt. The couple also had four children from previous marriages.
Associated Press writers Melissa Nelson in Pensacola and Tamara Lush in Miami and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.
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Seattle Police Department / AP
Seattle Police Department / AP
