WINONA, Miss. July 17 -- Mississippi authorities Wednesday investigated two separate cases of triple slayings, saying one appears to be a robbery and the motive in the other remains unknown. Two women and one man were fatally shot and a teenager critically wounded Tuesday in a furniture store in downtown Winona, Miss., while two men and a woman were found slain the same day in a state park in Neshoba County, Miss.
Winona is a town of about 5,500 residents located 60 miles north of Jackson. The state park in Neshoba County is located about 40 miles east of Winona. The slayings occurred between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Tardy Furniture Store. All four victims were shot in the head at least once, and some of them had been shot repeatedly, police said. Derrick Stewart, 16, a store employee was listed in critical condition at University Medical Center in Jackson on Thursday. Killed were Bertha Tardy, 59, the store owner; Carmen Rigby, 45, the store bookkeeper, and employee Robert Golden, 42. Investigators said there were no witnesses to the shootings, and an employee reporting for work was the one who reported the crime. Possible motives were a disgruntled former employee or possibly a gang, police said. In the Neshoba County case, three people were found shot to death in a car in the state park, and robbery was the motive. The three were all Indians and they had just received bonus checks from the Silver Star Casino, which is operated by the reservation where they live, deputies said. The victims were Cecil Amos, 21, and his brother Frankie Lee Amos, 23, along with their cousin, Shirley Ann Davis, 23. All three were shot numerous times with at least two different guns, deputies said, adding the time of the slayings was unknown.
