2 Arrested in 5 Slayings at Family Home

An 18-year-old was arrested Monday and accused along with a friend of methodically shooting to death five people--his father, mother, grandfather, brother and his brother’s girlfriend.

Authorities said the shootings were stretched out across Sunday afternoon, with the victims probably shot one by one at the family’s home. The crime was discovered around midnight Sunday, when the body of the father, an elementary school teacher, was found in his driveway in this rural community.

“The house was scattered with bodies. There was blood everywhere,” prosecutor Tony Tague said. “It’s difficult to imagine what possesses 18-year-olds to do something like this.”

Seth Stephen Privacky, 18, eluded searchers through the night and was arrested Monday afternoon in a barn a mile from his home.

Earlier in the day, police using tracking dogs arrested 18-year-old Steven Wallace, who had been seen running out of the woods not far from the home, Tague said.

“What we have here is two young individuals who got involved in a very bad situation and attempted to cover it up,” Tague said.

Both men were to be arraigned today on murder charges.

Killed were Privacky’s parents, Stephen Privacky, 50, and Linda A. Privacky, 49; his grandfather John J. Privacky, 78; his brother, Jedediah, 19; and Jedediah’s girlfriend, April A. Boss, 19.

The killings were discovered after Boss’ parents went to the house to look for their daughter.

Investigators believe the killings took place over an extended period of time, with the victims perhaps forced to stay in the house as each was slain, State Police Sgt. Gary Miles told the Muskegon Chronicle.

“There was little sign of struggle, no tying up,” Tague said. “But the shooting occurred with a definite plan of shooting all five.” Some of the bodies may have been dragged through the house, he said.

Two bodies were found in a small room off the garage, another in a room off the basement, and a fourth in an upstairs bathroom.

The Chronicle said Privacky was ordered to take medication as part of his punishment for stealing beer in 1996, but juvenile court papers did not identify the medication or the reason it was prescribed.

Doreena Schaeffer, a cashier at the Dalton EZ Mart who knew the family for a dozen years, said that the Privackys were active in school affairs and that her son played basketball with Seth Privacky.

“The kids were well-mannered. I never had any problem with my son playing with Seth,” she said.