Reliving hell: Survivors of 5 family members killed in Alabama home to attend execution

Two of death row inmate Derrick Dearman's victims were a husband and wife who had a 3-month-old baby, two were high school sweethearts pregnant with their first child, and another was a caring brother. They were massacred in the dark of night in an Alabama home, all because they were family members of Dearman's girlfriend.

Dearman was armed with an ax and two guns when he stormed into a Citronelle home on Aug. 20, 2016, and killed five people who were related by blood or marriage to his then-girlfriend, Laneta Lester.

During the drug-fueled rampage, Dearman killed: Lester's brother, Joseph Turner; Turner's wife Shannon Randall; Randall's brother Robert Brown; and Randall's niece Chelsea Reed, Reed's husband Justin, and the couple's unborn baby. He also kidnapped Lester and Randall's baby, who survived the ordeal.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in Citronelle, especially to this magnitude," Ashley Rich, a former Mobile County district attorney who still works on cases told USA TODAY. "It rocked and shocked the whole town."

As Dearman's execution approaches on Thursday, USA TODAY is looking at who the slain family was and how the tragic crime sent shock waves through the small city of Citronelle, just outside of Mobile.

‘Safe haven’ destroyed in the dead of night

Lester and Dearman were in an on-and-off again relationship, described in court records as “volatile.” 

“He always wanted power and control over Laneta. And then when he couldn't have it anymore ... he said he was going to take it,” Rich said.

Dearman went to the home but Lester told him he had to leave. He returned later in the night and began the killing spree.

“I do think about this case all the time. It is the most brutal case I’ve ever seen,” Rich said. “With the death of that many people and the fact that they were all alive, fighting for their lives with heinous marks all over their body.” 

Victims described as 'amazing people'

Justin and Chelsea Reed were high school sweethearts who were outspoken, spontaneous, and fun, and were all about video games and each other, Justin Reed's cousin, Wes Risher, told AL.com in a 2016 interview.

"If he was right, or if he was wrong, she stood by him ... He showed a love for Chelsea that I have never seen in my 32 years," Risher said. "It was very heartwarming. I just liked being around them."

The couple was also "super excited" to welcome their first child, whom they planned to name Aiden, and were eager to be back home in Citronelle after a brief stint in California.

He said Reed was more "like a brother" to him.

"We want them to be remembered for who they were and the amazing people they were ... not what happened to them," he told AL.com

Kidnapped girlfriend was the 'seventh victim,' prosecutor says

As Dearman confessed to Greene County deputies, Lester was at Citronelle Police headquarters making a report of her own. She and Randall's baby escaped from Dearman as he talked things over with his father. 

Both events, according to Rich, occurred “simultaneously.” And nobody knew that the family had been killed until Lester showed up at the police station. 

“It came to fruition that both of them were at different police stations at the same time, talking about this murder. She had the baby and was completely traumatized, in shock,” Rich said. “I’ve always said Laneta is the seventh victim because she was a victim of the kidnapping but having to witness everything she witnessed. Her life is over as she knows it.” 

News of the murders “spread quickly” through the small town and family members were already at the house when Rich arrived later that night.

“They were just devastated,” Rich said. "It was just heart-wrenching when they found out the manner in which they had died and how they had suffered so much.” 

Many victim family members to attend execution

Rich will not attend Dearman's execution on Thursday because "so many family members" plan to be there, she said. The execution, according to Rich, may bring "some sort of justice" for these families but "there will never be any closure."

Bryant Randall, Chelsea Reed's father and the brother of Shannon Randall and Robert Brown, told WALA-TV last month that he has "no hate for Derrick."

"Because one day we all gonna be judged," Bryant Randall told the affiliate. "I don’t condemn him to Hell. That’s not my place. But I hope he can go in peace."

Shannon Randall's daughter, Brooklyn, echoed a similar sentiment about Dearman, saying that she believes he has shown "genuine remorse" for the lives he took. (Dearman has said he is guilty and deserves the death penalty.)

“It is very emotional for me and for my family because it’s like tearing a Band-Aid off. So we’re having to relive that moment again," Randall told the affiliate. She was 19 when her mother was killed.

Robert Brown's father, Robert F. Brown Sr., plans to attend the execution on Thursday.

"I had so much more to give my son,” he told WPMI-TV in late September. “And it was all took away from me."

He explained struggling with anger and violent thoughts toward Dearman, but ultimately: "God said, 'No, you leave it in my hands.'" Now, he says he's not sure how he'll feel once Dearman takes his final breath.

"Because it's a pitiful thing for anybody to lose their life," he said. "I'm gonna feel sorry for him."