Riverside Man Arrested After Four in His Family Are Slain : Crime: The bodies of his parents and two brothers were found Friday in the St. Louis area. He is held on a murder warrant.

A Riverside man whose parents and two brothers were slain in St. Louis late last week was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department announced.

Emory M. Futo Jr., 26, was taken into custody Saturday night after St. Louis authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, Riverside Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Koehler said.

Futo’s parents and two brothers were killed late Thursday or early Friday, and their bodies were found at three sites in the St. Louis area on Friday, police said. Emory Futo had been expected in St. Louis for a visit about the same time, according to press accounts quoting the Futos’ friends and neighbors.

Several hours before he was arrested Saturday, The Times contacted Futo by telephone at his home in the Rubidoux section of Riverside. Sheriff’s deputies had just arrived.

“I’m in shock,” Futo sobbed. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

Before additional questions could be asked, a deputy took the phone and referred a reporter to department headquarters. No information was released until Saturday night, when authorities announced that Futo had been arrested.

The case in Missouri is being handled by St. Louis county and city police--two distinct agencies--because three of the bodies were found within city limits and the fourth in an unincorporated part of the county.

Only the County of St. Louis had issued an arrest warrant, alleging a single murder count, as of Saturday night.

Police did not disclose a motive for the killings.

The bodies of Futo’s parents--Emory Futo Sr., 53, and Euna Futo, 50--were discovered in their ransacked home in a quiet neighborhood in southwest St. Louis after Mrs. Futo failed to report for work, according to news accounts. Police found Mrs. Futo on the main floor of the home; her husband’s body was found in the basement.

A short time later, the body of their 22-year-old son, Joseph, was found in the back seat of a car parked a block away. After that, workers emptying a trash dumpster near the New St. Marcus Cemetery found the body of son Nick, 24.

Nick and Joseph Futo lived with their parents, according to news accounts published in St. Louis. Joseph was a student at Northeast Missouri State University, in Kirksville, and Nick worked at a warehouse.

The elder Futo was reported to be employed at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis and was a native of Hungary who fled to the United States after the failure of the 1956 uprising.

St. Louis City Police Capt. Robert Bauman, head of the homicide division, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it appeared the parents had been stabbed and possibly shot. The two sons were shot. Police described the slayings as brutal and said they found signs of a struggle inside the house, but no indications of a forced entry.

It was not clear how Emory Futo Jr.’s presence in St. Louis was established. But KTVI-TV in St. Louis reported that police had followed the trail of one of his dead brother’s cars, which was believed to have been used by the killer in making his escape. The car was abandoned near the city’s airport.

Before the arrest, police in St. Louis would not call Futo a suspect but confirmed he was wanted for questioning.

“He’s the only surviving member of the family,” St. Louis Detective William Ostendorf said in a telephone interview. “We crucially need to talk to him to get background on what happened and transpired.”

Ostendorf, of the county police department’s Crimes Against Persons Division, said his agency asked Riverside authorities to find and question Futo. Late Saturday afternoon, the St. Louis police were notified by Riverside that contact had been made.