On Monday, police in Minden, Louisiana, announced that an 11-year-old boy had admitted to the murders of former Mayor Joe Cornelius Sr., aged 82, and his 31-year-old daughter, Keisha Miles.
Cornelius, who was appointed interim mayor of Minden in 2013 after his predecessor’s passing, was discovered dead at his home east of Shreveport on Sunday morning.
His daughter was also found deceased alongside him, both having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
According to NBC News, the confession came from an unidentified 11-year-old boy on Monday.
Chief Jared McIver identified the boy as a relative of Cornelius’ but declined to provide additional details and said authorities have not determined a possible motive. He said the child’s age limited what information police could release about his relationship to the victims.
He is being held on two counts of first-degree murder and his bond was set at $500,000, McIver said. He said it was unclear whether the child has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
The bodies of Cornelius and Miles were found with multiple gunshot wounds, said McIver, who said that two handguns were used and that their magazines were emptied. McIver said the handguns had been hidden on the property and that the calibers matched shell casings at the scene.
Officers were first suspicious of the boy after he relayed “a story at first that just didn’t add up,” according to McIver.
By Sunday afternoon, he confessed to the murders and reportedly showed no remorse.
“What I would say would be remorseful — sadness, sorrowful, apology, crying — none of those things happened,” McIver said Tuesday.
Minden Mayor Nick Cox honored Cornelius upon his death, hailing him as a friend who “supported me and others in our city.”
“Joe Cornelius’s years of service to Minden were marked by his commitment and dedication to the betterment of our community,” Cox said. “Let us come together as a community to honor Joe’s memory and support one another through this time of grief.”
