Douglas Glenn ParkerA Dalton, Ga., man charged with shooting his mother and sister to death in Ranger, Ga., late Friday also faces drug-trafficking charges.
Douglas Glenn Parker, 54, was tracked to Murphy, N.C., and arrested Saturday in the deaths of Edna Sue Fields, 71, and Rebecka June Wade, 45, according to Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston.
The sheriff called it "a vile crime in an otherwise peaceful community."
He said family members found the bodies in Fields' home at 932 U.S. Highway 411 after Wade, who lived in Calhoun, failed to show up for an appointment.
On Saturday at 1:15 a.m., Parker's wife, Janet Kay Parker, was arrested in Cherokee County, N.C., for trafficking in opium or heroin and was set to be extradited to Georgia. Douglas Parker was arrested later that day, also on a charge of trafficking opium or heroin, and also is slated to be returned to Georgia.
In Ralston's news release, he said evidence at the crime scene showed that Fields "had recently been victimized" by Parker, who lives on Dawnville Road in Dalton, and that there were ongoing domestic problems.
Sheriff's officers and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents spoke to witnesses and developed information that he had fled to North Carolina, where he was arrested and lodged in the Cherokee County Jail, Ralston said.
Warrants charging Parker with two counts of murder were issued Saturday morning, he said.
Authorities have in custody a "person of interest" who is believed to know something about the slayings but who has not been charged, he said.
No one from the Gordon County Sheriff's Office, the GBI or North Carolina authorities would confirm Sunday whether the person of interest is Janet Kay Parker.
"Two innocent lives have been taken, and the family of the victims are in our thoughts and prayers," Ralston said in the release.
"While we can't restore a lost loved one, I am pleased that we have resolved this case swiftly and the persons responsible will be held accountable."