5 Teens Arrested After Couple Found Beaten to Death

A group of teenagers from a self-described “Vampire Clan” in Kentucky were arrested Thursday night in Baton Rouge, La., on murder warrants in the bludgeoning deaths of a Florida couple.

Richard and Naomi Wendorf were found beaten to death in Eustis late Monday and their 15-year-old daughter was missing. At first, investigators feared that she had been abducted. Then they realized that she was a suspect, along with her former boyfriend and three other teenagers linked to the Kentucky group.

The five were picked up about 10:30 p.m. EST in Baton Rouge, said Lake County, Fla., Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Daniels. Daniels did not have any details of the arrests. Baton Rouge city police could not immediately be reached for comment.

They honestly believe they’re vampires,” Murray, Ky., police detective Sgt. Mike Jump said Thursday.

The Florida girl, a granddaughter of a former official with evangelist Billy Graham’s organization, was thought to be traveling with the Kentucky youths in her father’s blue 1994 Ford Explorer.

The vehicle was missing when the girl’s 17-year-old sister found her parents’ bodies in separate rooms of their rural home late Monday night, the Lake County sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said there was no evidence of satanic rituals in the deaths, but they said the missing girl had told friends that she was a demon in past lives and had talked with spirits during human blood-drinking rituals.

Prosecutors had issued murder warrants Wednesday for her, two 16-year-old boys, both from Kentucky, and Dana Cooper, 19, of Murray.

Another 16-year-old girl from Murray was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.

One of the 16-year-old boys lived in Florida for awhile and attended Eustis High School with the missing girl before dropping out last year, according to newspapers in central Florida and western Kentucky.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday that the two dated for two years and kept in touch when he moved back to Kentucky.

Police in Kentucky suspect the teenagers’ cult has about 30 members.