(Reuters) - A southwestern Missouri man accused of shooting dead a pregnant woman and two others inside a mobile home early on Friday was charged on Tuesday with four counts of murder.
According to a probable cause statement filed in the case by the state Highway Patrol, Brian Williams, 25, of Sparta, Missouri, confessed to committing the crime after driving to the victims' trailer home in Ozark before dawn and pushing open the front door as the victims slept.
Williams told investigators that he crept inside gripping a pistol in both hands and wearing a headlamp to see in the darkness, then fatally shot Casey Maples and James Marsh in one bedroom, and Christina Winden in another. Police said Maples, 26, was seven or eight weeks pregnant.
The unborn child was the fourth victim.
Williams told investigators that after the shootings he retrieved some property that belonged to his girlfriend, and left, according to the probable cause statement. Police did not offer any possible motive for the killings or explain precisely how Williams knew his victims.
The probable cause statement said Williams expressed no regret for the killings but told investigators he wished that a fourth person had been at the mobile home as he had expected so that he could have killed him, too.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Nick Macfie)
