McMinn County, Tennessee, has seen a record rash of violence over just more than a week's time, with three incidents leaving six people dead and five jailed.
Sheriff Joe Guy said the incidents that occurred in the waning days of September are believed to be unrelated but noted there is a common thread.
"They're all connected in some way to narcotics, according to the families," Guy said Thursday.
The sheriff said the lifestyle that comes with a life touched by drugs creates bad situations.
Saturday's quadruple murder wasn't directly related to drugs "but every family member we've spoken to were concerned about the kind of life and choices in friends [those involved] made that may have led them to that location and to be at the wrong place and wrong time," he said.
"The [alleged] perpetrators' families said the same thing - it's bad life choices," he said.
"The victims' families are hurting. The suspects' families are hurting in a different way," he said. "Having spoken to both sides, it was something that did not have to happen."
Athens Police Department Chief Cliff Couch said he was proud of his officers' efforts in the investigation of a homicide on Saturday and said the families affected by the recent slayings need support.
"The violence in our community over the last week is obviously upsetting to our community," Couch said. "Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of these needless crimes."
Guy, who said he checked with other longtime law enforcement officials who agreed the recent slayings marked the deadliest streak in county history, said the community is in shock because such violence is rare in the rural county.
"When we do have something of this magnitude, we are surprised and we should be," he said. "We should look at ourselves, our values and what we're teaching our kids and remember that the lives of people in our community should always mean something.
"When you don't value life, a life can be taken awfully quick," Guy said.
Riceville slayings
Court documents and witnesses provide details of Saturday's quadruple murder on County Road 60 in the Riceville community that left four dead in a fight over a 10-month-old baby. Among the dead were the baby's father and among the suspects, his mother.
The victims are the baby's father, Trevon Hall, 36, in addition to Skylar Hawn, 24, Jesse Dupree, 40, and Brandi Harris, 39.
According to records in McMinn County General Sessions Court, Jazzmine Jacole Hall, 26, the baby's mother, was seen by one of the two surviving victims - a man and a woman - opening the door to the home with a gun in hand.
When the baby's mother saw the father holding him, she took the infant and then shot the baby's father in the face, documents state.
Jazzmine Hall then handed the firearm to Curtis Donnell Smith, 38, and told him "to finish them off," the surviving male victim told McMinn County Detective Jared Price.
That victim told Price that Smith "began shooting everybody in the residence," documents state. The female survivor of the incident told authorities when Smith shot at her she played dead.
Smith and Hall are now charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. They are each being held without bond and face Oct. 7 court appearances, court officials said.
Machete slaying
The same day as Riceville's quadruple homicide, Athens police investigated another slaying that stemmed from a fight and ended with a machete attack that authorities say killed Steve McKheean at a home on View Street, according to court documents.
James Paul Ramey, 43, of Athens, is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying police say started with a heated argument.
Police found McKheean lying in a pool of blood in the home's kitchen, and Ramey told officers McKheean "went crazy and he had to put him down," documents state.
Ramey told officers he and McKheean had been drinking and McKheean and a woman at the home were arguing, and he asked them to leave if they were going to argue, documents state. Ramey said he walked into the kitchen and was struck in the head with a frying pan and the fight began. Ramey contended he thought McKheean "was going to kill him," documents state.
Ramey is held on $100,000 bond and faces a court date Oct. 7.
Second-degree murder
On Sept. 18, Esau C. Kelly, 24, was charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting death of Mary Denise Dalton, 54, and wounding the deceased victim's 31-year-old son, records show.
Melissa Kay Pueirtt, 45, was charged as an accessory after the fact in the incident.
Dalton's son told county investigators and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents that his girlfriend, Pueirtt's daughter, wanted money for a fentanyl pill that led to an argument, court documents state.
Dalton's son told police he heard a gunshot and saw Kelly shooting at him, with one shot hitting him in the leg, and then he fell into the residence. Then he said he heard numerous gunshots.
Dalton had multiple gunshot wounds, and investigators found 13 shell casings from a .763-caliber rifle, which matched the caliber and brand of ammunition found during a search of Kelly's East Hamilton County home near the Bradley County line, records state.
Pueirtt maintained that she was not present when the shots were fired and had no knowledge of what had happened, records state.
Kelly is being held on $350,000 bond with a court date set for Oct. 18, while as of Tuesday, Pueirtt was being held on a $10,000 bond with a court date set for Nov. 17.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.