Stark County’s sheriff says the only link between two Northeastern Ohio families killed over the weekend appears to be their alleged attacker.
George Brinkman is accused of killing 45-year-old Suzanne Taylor and her adult daughters, Taylor Pifer and Kylie Pifer in their North Royalton home and then shooting Gene and Roberta John to death in their northern Stark County home. Sheriff George Maier says Brinkman, 45, had had a long business relationship with the Johns and was watching their house while they were on vacation. Maier says police didn’t originally have a name of the suspect.
“We had some idea of people of interest and even though we didn’t know who he was, we knew that whoever was sitting the house was somebody we wanted to talk to. Once we discovered that he was ... a person of interest in the North Royalton case, it certainly sparked our interest and we wanted to talk with him.”
Maier says Brinkman also dated the Johns' daughter but the relationship ended a long time ago.
Brinkman was taken into custody after a standoff with police at a home near Brunswick and Cleveland.com reports that police say he had evidence then that linked him to the Johns' deaths.
Police have offered no motive for either attack.
