On September 21, 2009, Raymond Rick Gee, 46, was found dead in his rural home in Beason, Illinois, along with his 39-year-old wife and three of their children, a 16-year-old daughter, a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old son. A 3-year-old daughter survived but was critically injured and hospitalized. All deceased victims suffered blunt force trauma consistent with a violent struggle inside the house; scene details include extensive blood spatter and multiple blows to the head for several victims.

Investigators recovered a bloody handprint from the bathroom and an aggressive-tread shoe print outside matching K-Swiss tennis shoes. Within weeks authorities arrested 30-year-old Christopher H. Harris, the ex-husband of the family’s adult daughter, on or about October 1, 2009. Law enforcement linked him to the scene by the shoe tread and the bloody handprint; a gray, primer-painted pickup tied to witness accounts contained the family’s missing laptop.

Prosecutors later presented testimony that Christopher Harris entered the home armed with a tire iron; his brother Jason Harris testified about drug and alcohol use before the attack and about witnessing violence. Christopher Harris was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder in May 2013 and sentenced in July 2013; Jason Harris cooperated and received a reduced sentence after pleading to obstruction and concealment. Did anyone in the Beason area know the Gee family or observe the Harris brothers around that time?