We have horrific news to report out of Florida today.
A 27-year-old Florida man named John Henry Walston Jr. has been accused of killing two children and lighting the trailer they were in on fire.
Police say the murders were part of Walston’s efforts to conceal his sexual assault of one of the children.
The two victims, Vayden Orum, 9, and Rayden Smith, 7, were reportedly spending the night at Walston’s house because they were friends with his children.
The exact sequence of events is somewhat unclear, but police say Walston sexually assaulted one of the children, murdered them, and then set his own trailer on fire in an effort to destroy the evidence.
“How can you expect any human being to do this? Let alone an adult with two kids,” Tyler Smith, father to one of the victims and stepfather to the other, told the news station WEAR.
“John, I hope they give you hell in prison, because you better be glad they found you before I did.”
“[The suspect] assaulted one, then killed them both before saving himself,” said Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons.
“I don’t know what else I can say about this terrible event,” Sheriff Simmons continued, “except for please hug your children.”
Witnesses say the victims’ mother attempted to enter the burning trailer in an effort to save her children.
“She went into the trailer trying to get them. That’s a mother’s love,” neighbor John Wenzel said, via People magazine.
“She went inside the house trying to get her kids, but [it was] too hot. They finally got her out of there.”
The victims’ grandmother, Lisa Pinegar, told WEAR that she received news of their death from their only surviving sibling.
“He said, ‘Mommy has been life-flighted to the hospital. My brother and sister is no longer here, they’re dead,'” she recalled.
“He just kept telling me over and over and I didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.”
John Henry Walston Jr. is currently being held without bail. His first court date is scheduled for November 26.
We will have further updates on this tragic story as new information becomes available.