Man Charged in Deaths of 6 Relatives

A man was charged Thursday with bludgeoning or strangling six relatives whose bodies were found wrapped in sheets and blankets in the basement of his grandmother’s home.

Authorities said Jesse Dee Wise, 21, confessed, but they would not comment on a motive. The victims spanned three generations of the same family; the youngest was 5 years old.

Three of the victims were hit in the head with a blunt metal object, and three others were strangled, police said in an affidavit.

Wise was arraigned on six counts of criminal homicide. As a judge recited the charges, Wise seemed to read along with a listing of the victims.

“When will I get a lawyer?” he asked.

Wise was ordered held without bail. The judge set a preliminary hearing for Thursday.

Authorities said his parents were both dead and that he lived with his grandparents.

Investigators discovered bone fragments, hair and a hammer in two upstairs bedrooms. There also appeared to be blood on the walls and ceilings, authorities said. In a guitar case at the home, police found two 17-inch pieces of metal that appeared to have blood on them.

The objects were wrapped at one end with cloth and “had the appearance of a homemade weapon/club, capable of causing death if used as a weapon,” according to the affidavit.

The victims apparently died of multiple traumatic injuries sometime last weekend, Lancaster County Dist. Atty. Don Totaro said.

The dead were identified as Wise’s 64-year-old grandmother, Emily Wise; two relatives believed to be his aunts; two of Emily Wise’s grandchildren, ages 5 and 19; and a 17-year-old relative, said East Lampeter Township Police Chief John Bowman.

The bodies were found after Emily Wise’s husband called from New York on Wednesday asking a relative to check on his family in Leola, a village in Lancaster County’s rural Amish country.

Jessie L. Wise, 60, was worried because he had not heard from his wife since Friday, authorities said.

The relative, John Sean Adams, 24, met the first officer at the house.

When they went inside, Adams stopped halfway down the basement steps and yelled, “They’re all dead! All six of them are dead!” according to the affidavit.

Shortly afterward, police pulled over Wise’s car and arrested him.

Court records indicate Wise already had more than a dozen charges pending against him in the county, including burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery.

Adams, who said he was the suspect’s cousin, said Jesse Dee Wise went by the nickname “Jay” and had a baby daughter who lived with her mother.