DALLAS (AP) — The lone survivor of an attack that left six dead at an East Texas campsite told authorities that the suspect had drinks with the victims before producing a gun and firing on them, according to an arrest warrant released Wednesday.
William Hudson, 33, was drinking with the group Saturday when he accompanied four of them — including a 6-year-old boy — into the surrounding woods, the warrant provided by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said.
Cynthia Johnson told sheriff’s deputies that she heard gunshots before Hudson returned alone to the campsite and chased her husband, Carl Johnson, and daughter, Hannah Johnson, into a travel camper. She said she fled and hid in the woods but saw her husband fall on the steps of the camper, where Hudson shot him.
Cynthia Johnson waited until it appeared safe and made her way to a road and eventually called 911, the document said. Authorities have said Hudson went to his mother’s home on an adjacent property and the warrant shows deputies saw him through a door wearing bloodstained clothes. He barricaded himself inside before eventually surrendering.
The motive for the attack remains unclear. Sheriff Greg Taylor did not respond to a call for comment Wednesday. Hudson was being held Wednesday at the Anderson County jail on a $2.5 million bond. His court-appointed attorney, Stephen Evans, said he couldn’t comment on the details of the investigation because he had just been assigned the case and not yet met with Hudson.
“This is very obviously going to be a long hard journey and we have a lot of work to do,” Evans said. Previous information provided by Taylor along with details from the warrant paint a portrait of Hudson as a seemingly friendly man before he turned on the blended family that had gathered for the weekend to camp on land about 100 miles southeast of Dallas.
Earlier Saturday, Hudson drove a tractor over to the campsite to help the group pull out a vehicle that was stuck in mud, the warrant said. He returned later to share drinks. Thomas Kamp purchased the land in August. Kamp and Hannah Johnson lived together in Midlothian, south of Dallas, with Johnson’s 6-year-old son Kade. They were at the campsite with Johnson’s parents and two of Kamp’s children from a prior marriage, Nathan and Austin Kamp, who were California residents. The family also was celebrating Nathan Kamp’s approaching 24th birthday.
The warrant said that after having drinks, Hudson followed the Kamps and Kade into the woods and shot them before returning to the campsite and gunning down the other two. The bodies of the Kamps and the child were found in a nearby pond. Investigators also found blood on the tractor, according to the warrant.
“The motive for the attack remains unclear.”
Bizarre indeed. He didn’t rob them, just murdered them.
Big Pharma, possibly?
Or ex-pig.