DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Six people found murdered in a Deltona, Fla., were beaten to death with aluminum baseball bats over a missing Xbox game console and some clothes, the Volusia County sheriff said Sunday.
Troy Victorino, 27, (pictured, left) the suspected ringleader of the incident, reportedly recruited three teens to storm the Deltona home Friday and brutally murder the six people inside,
Volusia County sheriff Ben Johnson said Sunday morning.
"The instrument used was baseball bats, aluminum baseball bats," Johnson said at a press conference. "They (four suspects) did severe trauma to all of the victims. As a matter of fact, one of them was so badly damaged that we've not been able to officially identify her."
Robert Cannon, 18, of Orange City;
Jerone Hunter, 18, of Deltona; and
Michael Salas, 18, of Deltona were arrested early Sunday along with
Victorino. The four men were charged with first-degree murder Sunday.
"This was all over some missing items of clothing and an Xbox that he (Troy Victorino) felt belonged to him," Johnson said Sunday.
Three of the suspects have confessed to the murders, Local 6 News confirmed Sunday.
Johnson said all of the men were "active participants" in the murders.
"It just never surprises me, some of the ridiculous things that happen but this was a crime I hope we never see another one like this in my career," Johnson said. This is the worst that I've ever (seen) in my career."
The bodies of the four men and two women were found Friday in different rooms of a three-bedroom home in Deltona, about 25 miles north of Orlando.
The discovery was made after a Burger King co-worker of one of the dead women asked someone to visit the home because she had not arrived for work, officials said.
Saturday, the sheriff's office identified the victims as Michelle Ann Nathan, 19; Anthony Vega, 34; Roberto "Tito" Gonzalez, 28, of New York; Francisco Ayo Roman, 30; and Jonathan Gleason, 18.
Authorities had not yet positively identified the sixth victim because her face was unrecognizable.
Sunday, Johnson said the suspects apparently forced entry into the home's front door and began the attack immediately.
"The victims really had no chance," Johnson said. "They had no chance to arm themselves it appears."
No other names have surfaced as possible suspects, Local 6 News reported.
The killing spree in the working-class, bedroom community of more than 70,000 people was the deadliest in Florida since 1990, when a man whose car was repossessed shot eight people to death at a Jacksonville loan office before turning the gun on himself.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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